


less devastating

by okaywhatever



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Supernatural Elements, yeojin lost in a forest so one could say is loona lore based but not really...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-03-30 03:26:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19033816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okaywhatever/pseuds/okaywhatever
Summary: journalism major kim jungeun decides to embark on a new project: investigate the strange disappearance of im yeojinthe deeper she goes into the investigation, the less sense everything makes. was this really a good idea?along the way she meets sooyoung, who is more involved in things than any of them could ever imagine.





	1. summer project

**Author's Note:**

> hi lipves nation...here we go again...
> 
> so this is the result of me getting obsessed with the genre of suburban gothic and vaguely trying to write something inspired in the loonaverse- it wasn't even supposed to be lipves at first but clearly that part failed...
> 
> hopefully the result is something enoyable~

 

_ “I hope our ghosts aren’t eating you alive. _

_ If I’m to speak for myself, I’ll tell you that _

_ the universe is twice as big as we think it is _

_ and you’re the only one that made that idea _

_ less devastating.” _

_ — Lucas Regazzi, Small _

 

Jungeun sits alone in the library, the only sound filing the air is the sound of her legs repeatedly banging against the table she’s sitting on.

She checks the clock, everyone is already thirty minutes late. Not shocking at all, honestly.

She’s waiting in a closed area. It’s a room that’s supposed to be used for studying; isolated from everyone and anything that may be roaming around the library. It honestly serves no purpose, Jungeun thinks, the place is always empty. Always. It doesn’t even have a librarian.

Only a town as small as this one could get away with something like that.

It’s not like there’s many books to guard, anyway. Their collection is very limited. Jungeun is almost certain all of the shelves are filled with the same twelve books over and over again.

That’s why she chose this place, actually. She wanted privacy.

Just as she’s about to send a couple of angry texts asking everyone where they are, Jungeun hears steps rapidly approaching the entrance. The door opens with a loud bang and a short, red haired girl enters the door, panting.

In record time, the look on her face goes from stress and guilt to relief after finding the room practically empty.

“Neat, no one’s here yet.” She says in between heavy breaths.

“ _I’m_ here, Vivi!” Jungeun grunts out, “I’ve been here for thirty minutes!”

“Ah-” The other girl replies, but whatever excuse she was about to give is cut short as someone else enters the room in a rush.

“I’m here! I’ve arrived! I’m sorry I’m so late, I got caught up with-” The hectic girl stops rambling once she notices that there’s only two other people in the room, “Oh, I see everyone else is late as well.”

Jungeun eyes Vivi, “See,” She says, “At least Haseul pretends to care about being late.”

Vivi shrugs and carelessly takes a seat across Jungeun.

Haseul senses the hostility and quickly interrupts, “Anyway, where’s the rest? Are you finally gonna tell us what you asked us to meet here for?”

Haseul’s intonation in the word ‘ _here’_ makes Jungeun know that she isn’t a big fan of spending her summer break in some dusty old library. Jungeun can’t blame her, this place gives her the creeps too, but for some reason it had sounded like a good idea. Libraries are appropriate for research, right?

Jungeun clears her throat before speaking, “This is everybody. No one else is coming.”

The other two girls shoot her a questioning look, they were expecting at least five more people here.

“Everyone cancelled on me last minute.” Jungeun explains quietly, almost sounding ashamed.  

“I envy them,” Vivi snorts, “I was tempted to do the same thing but, since I’m a good friend or whatever…”

Jungeun smiles at that. It doesn’t last long, though, cause soon enough Vivi is speaking again, “But if you don’t hurry up and explain me what I’m doing here my good friend status will be over as soon as it started. Now, talk.”

Haseul nods along to every word that Vivi says and looks at Jungeun expectantly.

“Well,” Jungeun starts, “As you guys know I’m soon starting my second year as a journaling major!”

Vivi rolls her eyes at the obvious information, Jungeun ignores it and continues talking.

“Right, so this time I have decided to use my summer wisely and embark on a- um, how should I say it…a summer project?”

“Okay?” Says Haseul softly, “And this is related to us because…?”

Jungeun lets out an exasperated sigh, “Yes, I’m getting there!”

She takes a few seconds to gather her thoughts, “So, a few days ago I randomly came across some old article about a missing person’s case. A case that I already knew of but had completely forgotten about with the pass of time. My mind had just gone blank of any detail relating to it. So, I decided to do some digging and you guys won’t believe what I found.”

She makes a dramatic pause, which earns her a smack in the shoulder from Vivi. Still, Jungeun takes a few seconds before talking again just for the suspense of it all.

“Nothing,” She finally says, “I found absolutely nothing. The case went completely cold after a few weeks, and everyone in town seems to have forgotten that it ever happened. And like, c’mon this is a tiny town, I probably know everyone’s face by memory but yet manage to forget that a girl I grew up with has vanished in the most mysterious and weird way possible? It makes no sense.”

Her friends look pensive, Jungeun can practically hear the engines in their minds move as they try to find some recollection of what she’s referring to. They’re wearing that type of look that someone gets when going through old documents that haven’t been touched in months, probably years. Paper painted yellow with time.

Vivi makes a humming noise, “Now that you mention it, it does sound familiar. Something about her running into the forest or something like that.”

Jungeun nods excitedly, at least _one_ person other than her remembers.

“Oh yeah,” Says Haseul, traces of uncertainty still taint her voice, “The Im kid…We used to go to school together. Yujin, was it?”

Jungeun opens her mouth to speak but is interrupted- and startled, by the sound of Haseul clapping, “Ah! Nevermind, I got it, it was Yejin!”

The smug look on Haseul’s face is vanished when Jungeun corrects her, “Im Yeojin.”

“ _Ahhhh_ ,” Both Haseul and Vivi say as the name helps them clear out their memory.

Im Yeojin had been three and four years behind Jungeun and the two older girls respectively. Yet, the nature of their small town and therefore tiny school, had allowed them to study not more than a few corridors away for many years.

Her case had felt like a personal attack to not only the three girls, but also everyone else in the school. There’s something unsettling about the disappearance of a person that you spend so much time locked in the same building with.

Jungeun sighs, “I just can’t stop thinking about how she’s been reduced to nothing but an urban myth…The girl that got up in the middle of the night and walked into the forest only to never be seen again.”

The story still sends shivers down Jungeun’s spine. That’s a feeling you get used to when living in the middle of nowhere your whole life, though. Being creeped out becomes your natural state. Unholy is the norm. Still, Jungeun can’t help but shudder. She thinks Haseul and Vivi do it too.

“I get it,” Jungeun says, “It’s a chilling story but she still deserves some…justice, you know? It’s like the police, news outlets and everyone in town just gave up on her.”

The shift in the mood is noticeable. It feels heavy on the three girls.

“Hey,” Haseul puts a caring hand on Jungeun’s shoulder, “I know what you mean. The sudden lack of interest _and_ answers is unsettling, but,” She turns to Vivi, “I still can’t figure out what our role here is.”

Vivi looks at Jungeun with doey eyes. As if desperately waiting for the answer of a question she never knew she had. It doesn’t come.

Jungeun breaks the eye contact, “I’m going to investigate her case, and since we all knew her, practically grew up with her, I thought this could be a good place to start the…search. Tackle the basics first.”

“You randomly inviting so many of our old classmates here suddenly makes _so_ much sense now,” Vivi speaks, mostly to herself.

Jungeun’s face naturally scrunches at the mention of their old classmates. They had all acted so uninterested when Jungeun had texted them. Normally she would have been hurt, but she got too busy being annoyed over their elusiveness.

“Yeah. It’s just us for now, I guess,” Mutters Jungeun.

“Hey, I didn’t say I’d help you!” Says Vivi.

“But you didn’t say you wouldn’t!”

Haseul and Vivi eye each other. Everyone’s quiet for a while.

When Haseul sighs and shuts her eyes, Jungeun knows she’s won her over.

“Ugh, fine!” Vivi breaks the silence, “Let’s find the missing kid.”

* * *

 Jungeun lets out a long breath as she steps out of the practice room. It feels like no air is enough, and she can only hope that some liquid will help her post-dance-practice-exhaustion. She drags her feet towards her academy’s convenience store and grabs the first energy drink she sees. It’s a pink one that Jungeun never knew existed. It sounds disgusting but her tired body craves the caffeine disguised as artificial sweetness.  

It’s been a day since her meeting with Haseul and Vivi. The list of things they’ve accomplished since then starts and ends with:

  1. Agreeing to investigate Yeojin’s disappearance.



The task proved to be harder than anticipated, especially when accompanied by Haseul and Vivi who kept getting distracted every ten seconds. For the rest of the day Jungeun had only managed to fill them up on everything she had found so far- which wasn’t much, anyway.

Later that night she had gone to bed after seeing the sun come up.

As she stands in the middle of a poorly illuminated beverage hallway, Jungeun thinks about how not worth it depriving herself from sleep had been. All that came out of it was a dead reddit thread and a few articles that basically repeated the same three sentences in different ways, “16-year-old goes missing in the middle of the night” “She walked out of her house and into the forest -presumably- all by herself” “The police have no leads.”

 _God_ , she had thought to herself, _don’t ever let my journaling be that mediocre._

She went to bed with no new findings.

And now, here she is. With a tired mind and a sore body.

Jungeun pays for her drink and notices the cashier is a new one. They always are. Has she ever seen the same employee more than once?

She shrugs the thought away and isn’t bothered with leaving the store before opening the bottle. Jungeun is too busy chugging down her drink to notice the bell in the door ring, signifying someone had walked in.

An embarrassingly loud “ _Ahhh_ ” leaves her mouth when she’s done drinking. It only gets more embarrassing as Jungeun opens her eyes and literally chokes once she notices there was an audience.

A girl stands right in front of Jungeun, blatantly staring.

She’s all sweaty and looks just as tired as Jungeun, if not more. Clearly freshly out of a rather intense dance practice.

It’s a face that Jungeun had never seen before. New, yet familiar. It peaks Jungeun’s interests because there are _never_ new faces around here. Everyone is always the same. No one moves into a forgotten town.

The new girl smiles shyly and walks towards the same section Jungeun had just walked out of. It’s like Jungeun’s body has a mind of its own when it starts following her.

Jungeun stands awkwardly behind the stranger. Not really waiting for anything.

When the other girl finally turns around; there is a drink in her hand and a smile in her face.

Jungeun has no idea what she’s doing, but a pull forces her to take a step closer, and speak, “You’re new here.”

The sound of her own voice feels foreign.

New girl tilts her head, “Am I?”

“I’ve never seen you before.”

“Well, neither have I. Does that make _you_ new?”

Jungeun furrows her eyebrows in confusion, was that a yes or a no?

“I don’t think so…?” She replies, suddenly unsure of her own identity.

It makes the stranger laugh and oh wow this energy drink must be really good cause suddenly Jungeun can feel her heart rate picking up and as if liquid vitality has been shot right into her veins. A spark has set off inside of her, and everything around her just became ten shades more vibrant. Great product. She’ll make sure to remember the brand.

The stranger moves to pay and Jungeun tails after her.

“I’m Jungeun,” She says, not sure why.

The girl looks at her, so does the cashier. One feels warm, the other not so much. Jungeun doesn’t care, though. She’s used to them staring.

“Nice to meet you Jungeun,” She says, her tone is nice. “I’m Sooyoung,” She introduces herself. Her name is nice. It fits her.

As Sooyoung gets distracted with paying, Jungeun gets distracted with her phone. It vibrates multiple times. A smile escapes her lips when she reads the screen.

 **_Heejin:_ ** _jungeun, hey!!!! i just saw ur text…._

 **_Heejin:_ ** _let’s meet up??_

Heejin had been one of the many old classmates that had ignored Jungeun when she asked for a small and impromptu reunion. Honestly, knowing that Heejin hadn’t disregarded her intentionally made her feel better and oddly validated. She quickly replies with a time and place to meet at.

Once Jungeun looks up from the screen, Sooyoung’s gone.

It feels like a missed opportunity.

* * *

 They sit on a table of the only coffee shop in the entire town.

Jungeun sees cars that keep coming into the parking lot, but no one ever enters the store. It’s just her, Heejin, a girl that came with Heejin and two other random people the entire time.

The other two strangers are so quiet, Jungeun forgets they’re there.

When Jungeun first got there, she had been greeted by an overly joyful Heejin, who after waving at her excitedly and offering a tight hug, proceeded to introduce the other girl standing next to her. “This is Hyunjin,” She had said, “My girlfriend.” There was pride in her words. Jungeun thought it was cute.

The three of them went all the way back to high school, though Jungeun had never been personally introduced to Hyunjin. She just knew her as a somewhat quiet girl that tried her best to not stand out. She did a good job.

Heejin, however, is the total opposite. Everyone knows her, everyone loves her. Everyone knows that you’re not supposed to find girls like her in a town like this. That’s what makes her stand out.

She’s always the president of her year, she had probably been president of Jungeun’s class once despite being two years younger.

Jungeun is able to bring up the topic about Yeojin smoothly. Both girls seem unfazed by it.

“I remember her,” Says Heejin, “We always took the same bus to school.”

 _Her seat still remains untaken, even after seven months of her disappearance,_ is what Heejin thinks, but doesn’t say.

Sometimes she thinks she sees Yeojin sitting on it from the corner of her eye. Her heart races but when she turns her head the spot is empty. She’s just seeing things, that must be it. School starts too early and her tired mind is playing tricks on her.

“We used to be close,” Speaks Hyunjin for the first time, “She was gonna try out for the school’s track team this year. I was helping her train…”

Finally, some new information.

“She was good,” Hyunjin says.

Jungeun nods along and decides to push for more  information, “Was she acting any different the days prior to her disappearance?”

Hyunjin frowns, memories of Yeojin replay like a movie in her head. There are a lot. She shakes her head, “She was the same as always.”

Jungeun squirms in her seat, “Did she ever give you any reason to think she’d want to, um, run away?”

The question is a controversial one, to say the least. Everyone in town had disregarded it, even the police, “Why would anyone wanna leave this place?” they had said, a smile hidden in their tone.

Still, Jungeun thought that it’d be worth looking at.

“Not at all. I can’t think of anything, believe me, I’ve already tried. Our families were close, you know? We grew up playing together and her home never seemed as anything that wasn’t loving. I mean, you never know what’s going on behind the closed doors but,” She shrugs, “I don’t think there was anything.”

Heejin holds Hyunjin’s hand under the table.

“That running away theory seems dumb,” Says Heejin, “No offense to you but, if I wanted to ditch town I wouldn’t run into the forest, I’d do it by going into the complete opposite direction; which would be the highway.”

Heejin does make a good case…

Their nameless town is bordered by a highway to the left, and a forest the right. Both seem endless. They probably are.

“Maybe Yeojin thought she’d be able to make it to the end of the forest?” Jungeun says hopefully, it sounds ridiculous when said out loud.  

Heejin twists her face in disagreement, but Hyunjin is the one to speak, “I doubt it. She knew the woods well enough to know that’s impossible. She was _that_ type of kid. Plus, she knew not to wander around there during the night…”

Jungeun knows what she means. In this town, there’s two type of people. The ones that grow up with the forest as their playground, and the ones that don’t even like walking in front of it. Jungeun, needless to say, belongs to the second category. She’d rather take the long way back home than pass in front of that place all by herself. It always makes her feel too eerie for her own good. Especially during the night.

It’s kind of an unspoken rule to avoid the forest once it gets dark.  

“She must have had a really  good reason to be there,” Heejin says, “I can’t think of a single thing that would make me willingly walk in there so late at night.”

Jungeun hums, and everything goes quiet.

“Oh!” Hyunjin says after a while, suddenly remembering something.

“Yeojin used to hang out a lot with this one girl, they were like- best friends and I’m pretty sure they often ventured into the forest together.”

“Choi Yerim,” Says Heejin after Hyunjin mentions not remembering her name well, “I think they were in the same class or something.”

Jungeun can’t help but think how lucky she is to have friends as overprotective- and cowardly as Haseul and Vivi. Cause in a town like this, getting bored can be dangerous. Thank god she never thought of walking into a damn forest for fun.

“Yeah! Her,” Says Hyunjin, “Maybe she can help you some more.”

Jungeun crosses her finger. She hopes so too.

* * *

It's pouring rain outside…in the middle of summer. Rain is the only thing that this town’s weather knows how to do. The few days that they get away with no rainfall, the sky is still cloudy. The clouds only continue to get darker and darker each day, until the rain comes back.

Luckily enough, the storm hasn’t affected the electronics like it so often does, at least not yet. Jungeun prays that the signal stays with her for the rest of the night.

She’s on the phone with Vivi and Haseul. The other two girls are spending the night together. They’re neighbours and Vivi happens to be scared of thunders -not that she would ever admit it, though. But even with no confession, Haseul still shows up at Vivi’s doorstep whenever the rain gets a bit _too_ heavy, and Vivi is always thankful.

They talk nonsense for over an hour until Vivi subtly brags about an amazing discovery that will most likely help Jungeun solve this case. Or at least that’s what she says.

“Oh God,” Jungeun says, not really buying into Vivi’s hype, “Do I wanna know?”

“Are you kidding me?” Replies Vivi, “Of  course you do.”

“You better write this down,” Haseul warns Jungeun.

“Okay, so,” Vivi starts, “I was asking around,  trying to find out about anything that might not be online or known already and then I thought that maybe we should look into old newspaper articles. I mean, those aren’t published on the internet cause everyone in this place is old-fashioned as fuck, so perhaps another trip to the library might help us with that!”

That honestly sounds like a great idea, and Jungeun is about to congratulate Vivi on her thinking when she realizes the girl was just taking a breathing break and had not been done talking yet.

“But! That’s not my groundbreaking discovery. That’s boring. The important thing is what came after that. I tried searching for some scans of any local newspapers, just in case, but instead I came upon a blog from some girl. In there she has a long ass post all about Yeojin. It doesn’t give much new information, just tiny details, most of it is speculation, really. But that’s the interesting part. She assumes a lot of things, she states them as facts. She- uh, she says she’s a medium.”

“A medium,” Jungeun repeats, “You said a medium? I just wanna double check that that is, in fact, what you said.”

“A medium, yes.”

“I will hang up on you.”

“No! You listen to me!”

Jungeun sighs.

“Yeah, listen to Vivi!” She hears Haseul scream in the background.

“Ugh, fine. Only cause I have nothing better to do,” Jungeun gives in.

“I think you should talk to her. I’m serious. I checked out the rest of her blog and she like- specializes in creepy stuff like this,” Vivi sounds sincere, and any feeling that Jungeun had about being trolled by her two friends completely disappears.

“Okay,” Haseul interferes, “Maybe ‘specializes’ is an overstatement. But, she does seem to be really into these darkish kinda topics, plus her entries are always _so_ good! When Vivi sent me the link I scrolled down her blog for _hours_.”

“Oh my God….” Jungeun says, “Fine. Send me the link.”

She hears the two girls high five on the other side of the line, and then her phone illuminates with a new message.

 **_Vivi:_ ** _http://www.choenspiracies.wordpress.com/_

 **_Vivi:_ ** _http://www.choenspiracies.wordpress.com/111102/im-yeojin-case/ that’s the yeojin post!_

“Did you get it?!” Vivi asks over the phone.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jungeun bookmarks the post about Yeojin to read it later and decides to look into the rest of the blog and- _oh my god._

“Oh, by the way, tiny detail we forgot to mention. She actually lives in this town. Isn’t that crazy? What are the chances,” Jungeun is half-listening to Vivi as she reads through an ‘about the author’ section.

The author is Choi Yerim.

Yeah, Jungeun is _definitely_ gonna have to speak with this girl.

* * *

She’s dancing again today. Jungeun wishes she could do this more often, but there’s only so many things you can do in a day. Since last night, after e-mailing that Yerim girl asking if they could meet up for an interview, Jungeun has been frantically checking her phone for a reply. Nothing yet.

Mid-morning Jungeun had decided that she needed a distraction, otherwise she would end up losing her mind. Dancing had always been therapeutic for her. Getting immersed into that routine in which mind and body act almost instinctively. Less thinking and more moving. It allows her mind to get lost in a place where her thoughts don’t wander around, and she feels in full control of at least one thing.

That’s how she ends up in the dancing studio for almost three hours. She doesn’t notice that much time passes. It honestly doesn’t feel like that much. She swears time passes differently in that place.

When she’s done her entire body is burning and her lungs feel on fire. She’s trying to catch her breath when there’s a strange tug in her chest, urging her to move. Her actions aren’t controlled this time, it’s as if she’s being dragged by an ocean. It’s a strong and invasive feeling; she doesn’t fight it. She instinctively starts walking with no destination in mind. Before she even realizes it, she’s inside the convenience store of the first floor.

She’s back to her senses now, but nothing actually makes sense. The buzzing light of the store is almost trance inducing as Jungeun stands under it, trying to process what just happened.

She had bought her own water this time to avoid having to take another trip here so she’s unsure of what to do next. It feels awkward to just leave empty handed, plus Jungeun thinks she can actually recognize the cashier for once so, whatever, she just takes the closest thing to her reach and goes to pay.

Only now, she realizes her pockets are empty. Her wallet, and everything else had been left behind in the corner of the room she was practicing on. _Great_.

“It’s okay,” She hears a voice behind her, “I’ll pay for her.”

Jungeun turns around to thank whatever saint has decided to pity her and comes face to face with the same girl from last time.

She feels strangely relieved.

“Hey,” Says Jungeun once the other girl is done paying, “Sooyoung, right?”

She knows the answer to that already.

Sooyoung nods and hands Jungeun her drink. Jungeun is oddly hyper-aware of their skin brushing against each other while she takes it. It’s weird.

“Thank you for that, you didn’t have to,” Says Jungeun.

Sooyoung shrugs, “I wanted to.”

Jungeun could leave now. She should, but she doesn’t want to.

Sooyoung clears her throat and speaks again, “Hey, you look in better condition today.”

“Hm?”

Sooyoung lowers her head, “Is that rude to say?” She murmurs sheepishly, “I mean last time I saw you, you looked really tired.”

Jungeun remembers how much of a mess, both physically and mentally, she had been when they first met. She feels her cheeks slightly heat up at the thought of any other human remembering her like that.

“Ah,” She manages to say, “Yeah. I was running on like, two hours of sleep that day.”

Sooyoung frowns. “How come?” She asks sweetly.

Jungeun shudders, probably at the war flashbacks of going through life sleep deprived.

“Well,” She sighs, “I was trying to do some research, which- uh, kinda failed miserably.”

Sooyoung laughs softly, “Well that sounds lovely.”

Jungeun thinks for a moment and decides to use this opportunity to ask Sooyoung if she knows anything that might be useful. Maybe she’s heard something. She has nothing to lose and the words of one of her favorite professors saying _‘our work as inquisitors only stops when we’re sleeping!’_ ring inside her head.

“Actually,” Jungeun starts, choosing her words carefully, “I’ve been trying to do some research about this somewhat recent case. A missing persons case…”

Jungeun’s observing Sooyoung closely, see if there’s any shifts in her demeanor when the topic is brought up. There’s nothing other than honest interest on her face.

She decides to continue talking, “So, yeah, the lack of information has been keeping me awake.”

Sooyoung blows air out of her cheeks, “That sounds harsh.”

“It sucks,” Jungeun continues eyeing her, the other girl seems unfazed by the route the conversations taking.

Jungeun takes a minute to _really_ observe the girl.

Her features are sharp, but somehow manage to give off a soft image. Jungeun knows that this is a face she wouldn’t forget, so why does she keep trying to remember where she knows her from.

Sooyoung looks pretty under the incandescent light and no one ever looks pretty under the incandescent light.

You know, this town is safe until you stare at something for too long, many things like to hide in plain sight. Jungeun wouldn’t mind risking it if it means she gets to stare at Sooyoung’s face for more than a few seconds.

Sooyoung notices the staring, and a smirk appears in her face.

The response startles Jungeun, and she has to physically shake her head in order to regain the control of where her attention is going.

“Uh, so, the case- yeah- have you like, um,” Jungeun trips over her words, in a very ungraceful manner. She sighs.

Sooyoung tries her best to hide the laugh that’s threatening to escape her mouth. Jungeun already looks red enough and she doesn’t want to make it worse…even though she finds it kinda cute.

Jungeun quickly recovers.

“I mean, have you heard about it? It’s the Im Yeojin case.”

Sooyoung thinks the name sounds familiar, but nothing really stands out about it in her mind. She doesn’t really pay attention to that type of stuff, and as far as Sooyoung’s concerned the last crime in town happened before she was even born.

She shakes her head, “First time hearing about it, sorry.”

Jungeun can’t help the disappointment in her face, “It was worth the shot, I guess.”

“Hm,” Says Sooyoung, “But maybe if you need help in any other way…?”

Jungeun frowns, not being able to catch on what the other girl could mean by that.

“Huh?”

“Maybe I can be your assistant or something, you know, just if you want” Sooyoung wiggles her eyebrows as she speaks.

“ _Oh_ ,” Jungeun says, “Well, I was planning on going to the library later this week. Some company would be nice.”

Sure….Sooyoung will take that.

They take each other’s numbers and shortly after say goodbye. Sooyoung walks out of the store with a smile on her face. Feeling accomplished.

Jungeun thinks the exchange had been a bit weird, but what isn’t on this town. She doesn’t question it.

* * *

This isn’t what Jungeun had imagined when she pictured a psychic girl with a creepy blog that likes hanging out in the woods.

She’s currently sitting in front of a cute girl with twinkling eyes that will literally not stop smiling and looks too nice for her own good. It would honestly be a bit creepy if it wasn’t for how genuine it felt.

Choi Yerim had replied to Jungeun a couple of days after. The girl sounded more than willing to help and had not been shy to share the address of her home with Jungeun.

They are now sitting in a poorly lit living room. Most of the light enters through a huge glass door that leads to the back porch of the house. It has the forest as it’s view. Of course it does.

A tiny dog sits in the deck of the house, facing the inside. It stares at Jungeun and hasn’t stopped barking since she arrived. It never shuts up. Eventually Jungeun gets used to it, and it becomes background noise.

“So,” Yerim says, “I understand that you’re here to talk about Yeojin, yeah?”

An emotion that Jungeun can’t decipher flashes in the girl’s eyes.

“Yes,” Jungeun replies, “I just wanted to ask you some things, if you’re okay with it.”

“Sure am,” Yerim replies.

They go over the basics. Things Jungeun already has memorized. Yerim tells her about her relationship with Yeojin. About how they were the type of best of friends that went everywhere together. The woods being their favorite spot to visit.

“Why there?” Asks Jungeun.

Yerim hums, “We both grew up playing there a lot. We knew that place better than any other place in town. We felt safe there.”

Jungeun’s eyes widen. Safe is the last word she’d use to describe that place.

“You always went together, right?”

“Yeah. Always.”

“So, did she go with you the night she disappeared?”

“No,” Yerim doesn’t meet Jungeun’s eyes when talking, “I wish it had been like that but…no.”

“Did you get any text or something asking you to meet there?”

Yerim just shakes her head. She looks upset, and understandably so. This is her missing best friend they’re talking about.

“You have any idea of why she would wanna be there so late, alone at night? Was she meeting anyone?”

“Listen, if I knew this stuff, I would have told the police or something!” Yerim snaps finally, or rather tries to. Her voice still sounds soft and polite, “Why wouldn’t I have told anyone already?”

Jungeun shrugs calmly, “You tell me.”

Yerim just looks at her in a questioning manner and sighs before talking, “She went there by herself….She hasn’t been harmed and she won’t be. That was never the intention behind this.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? How do you know that?” Jungeun tries to control her voice, but it becomes clear she’s apprehensive about what the younger girl just said.

Yerim looks uneasy at her own words too. She said too much, “I just do.”

There’s sadness in her eyes as she continues to avoid Jungeun’s stare.

“ _Oh_ ,” Says Jungeun remembering what Vivi and Haseul had told her about Yerim, “Right. You’re uh- You got that _thing_ , right? A medium.”

“I like the term psychic better,” Yerim corrects her, “…But you don’t believe me, do you?”

Jungeun opens her mouth but can’t manage to come up with a response, somehow not wanting to disappoint Yerim by saying no.

“You’re awfully incredulous for someone living in a nameless town in the middle of nowhere.”

Jungeun lets out a humourless laugh, “I’ve gotten that before.”

“Hm,” Yerim says lost in thought, “Maybe that’s good on a case like this one. Maybe it’ll give you answers, yeah? I mean, so many people gave up on the case, attributing a supernatural explanation to it. Maybe you’ll be different.”

Yerim sounds almost hopeful. Jungeun shares that feeling.

“I hope so.”

“If you continue looking, you’ll find her.” Yerim says in a monotonous voice. It’s almost as if something takes over her, just like before. The words come out on their own.

Jungeun watches her as she closes her eyes, looking somewhat embarrassed.

“Um,” Jungeun breaks through the awkwardness forming around them, “Anything else you wanna tell me?”

Yerim finally meets her eyes again, “No, I don’t think so. Not for now, anyway.”

Jungeun frowns in return but is quickly shot down by the flash of a lovely smile again. She can’t help but smile in return.

“I’ll let you know if I remember anything else.” Says Yerim.

This is probably her cue to go, “Thanks. I’d really appreciate that.”

As they start walking towards the door, the sound of the dog barking steals Jungeun’s attention again. She looks at the small animal, this time it is looking towards the woods.

“Jesus,” Jungeun adds, “How can your dog be so loud while being that size.”

“Huh?” Yerim says following Jungeun’s line of sight, confusion evident in her face, “We don’t have a dog.”

Jungeun feels her heart sink. “I- Right. Never mind...”

Yerim eyes her weirdly. Knowingly.

Jungeun says her goodbyes and doesn’t think about it.

She rushes home. She ignores the shadows in her peripheral vision, ignores the sounds that come from empty streets, and doesn’t think about it.

 


	2. library date

Much to Jungeun’s dislike, she’s sitting in the library again. She hasn’t been there more than five minutes, but it doesn’t take too long for her phone to become a distraction. She’s thankful for the human to human interaction, even if it’s through a screen. The library always makes her feel on edge. She doesn’t really know what it is. Maybe it is the damp smell of wet books that only seem to get more intense by the second. Or perhaps it’s the deafening silence that ends once in a while with normal sounds of people that only become weird once you realize you’re completely alone. Except that maybe you’re not. The feeling of being watched weighs Jungeun down. She knows that it can’t be, that there’s no one else here. She could just turn around and check, but she doesn’t want to. She’s sure her eyes would be met with nothing, but it’s better to not risk it. She’s just being paranoid.

Her phone vibrates again. Somehow in between these last few days her group chat with Vivi and Haseul had turned into one with Heejin and Hyunjin, too. Mostly cause the latter two girls wouldn’t stop texting Jungeun, asking if there were any updates. When the answer kept being no, they had insisted on letting them help. It didn’t take much for Jungeun to say yes.

The chat is active now as Hyunjin introduces the theory of an alien abduction. Heejin fully supports it. Heejin also mentions that many people think some weird stuff go down in those woods. She talks about portals to another world, multiple universes and alternative dimensions. Vivi sounds fascinated by it and probably convinced. Haseul says something similar with fancier words such as ‘magnetic field’ and ‘high energy physics’ and something about a string.

It’s all too much for Jungeun, and she can’t believe  _this_  type of conversation is what’s keeping her grounded. They’d all get along so well with Yerim…

Jungeun decides that she wants company, but not one that comes with crazy talk. She scrolls through her contact list and takes a shaky breath when she finds the number she wants. Sooyoung’s.

She writes five different versions of the same text in less than a minute, she finally settles down with a : _“hey, sooyoung. it’s jungeun. what are u doing?? i’m at the library right now…”_

The invitation is kinda last minute but Sooyoung wouldn’t mind that, right? Jungeun hopes not. It’s also vague enough for Jungeun to not feel too bad if she gets rejected but also direct enough to get the point across. Like, if Sooyoung says no, Jungeun can just use her text as a normal conversation starter. She congratulates herself and her smooth wording.

Her congratulations start to feel weaker as fifteen minutes pass by with no response. Then it’s thirty and soon after that forty. Jungeun pathetically stares at her phone screen, as if that would magically get her a text back.

She hasn’t even started doing the work she’s here for. She had plans of going through some old newspaper, just like Vivi had suggested. Yeah, she definitely came to the library with the intentions of doing some investigating. No ulterior motive whatsoever. Jungeun totally hadn’t subconsciously spent some extra fifteen minutes in front of the mirror making sure her makeup looks good just cause she knew there was a tiny possibility of seeing Sooyoung later that day.

“Ugh,” Jungeun says to herself as she realizes she’s actually gonna have to go through old, dusty newspaper all by herself. What a fun time.

She thinks it’s crazy how the local library fails to have any basic book that you could think of but keeps a perfect archive of every newspaper published daily for the last fifty decades. Who even puts them here? She’s probably better off not knowing the answer to that.

Just as she’s about to stand up a loud bang of a door sounds through the room. It’s deafening to the point Jungeun’s convinced that a bomb just went off and she’s currently living the last moments of her life.

She turns around in a state of panic only to be met with Sooyoung calmly walking towards her. The girl approaching giggles at the expression Jungeun wears.

“Hey,” She says, “You good?”

“Oh my god,” Jungeun hisses, “You almost  gave me a heart attack.”

“Oh, your heart does stuff for me?”

Jungeun barely chokes at that. Not to say yes but…well…that right there definitely just made it do  _something_.

“Huh?” Is all Jungeun manages says.

Sooyoung laughs, “I’m just messing with you.”

Jungeun lightly rolls her eyes, “Whatever, I didn’t know you were coming…”

“I mean I can just leave again if that’s what you want,” Sooyoung turns around and starts walking away. Jungeun is slow to react, but she’s able to hold onto Sooyoung’s arm and drag her back.

“What?! No…”

“Hm?” Says Sooyoung, eyes acting innocent.

Jungeun says nothing, and just continues to pull her arm, harder this time.

Sooyoung mockingly places one of her hands near her ear, “What’s that?”

Jungeun suddenly feels shy. What is it with this girl?

“Don’t!” Jungeun drags the word, it comes out as more of a whine than anything else.

“Don’t what?”

“Ugh,” Jungeun says, knowing what she’s about to say, “Don’t leave, please.”

She tugs at Sooyoung’s hand again, bashfully, “I want you to stay.”

“Ah,” Sooyoung sounds pleased, “No need to insist, really. I was going to, anyway.”

Jungeun just stares at her with a serious face, as the other girl laughs at her successful teasing. She finds it hard to not laugh along, so instead she focuses on taking a mental note of how soon is  _too_ soon to fight a stranger.

* * *

Once Sooyoung gets there they surprisingly do get some work done. Sooyoung is quite eager to help, which is a bit endearing, actually.

In record time the older girl manages to locate a bunch of newspapers from around the time Yeojin first disappeared. She then makes a pile of all the pages that actually include pieces related to the case.

Jungeun is in charge of reading through them and seeing if any information sticks out. So far, there’s nothing. She tries not to be too disappointed.

They do a lot of talking while working. Sooyoung’s voice is a nice counteract to the creepy noises that usually flood the library.

Jungeun finds out that Sooyoung is a dance major and that she’s been assisting the same academy as Jungeun for a few years already. She seems as surprised as Jungeun over the fact that they had never crossed paths before, “I guess good things take time,” is what Sooyoung says about it. Jungeun feels a slight flutter when she hears that and attributes it to the weird energy in the library. Y _es_ , it’s definitely just that.

“So, can I ask about why you are so invested in this case?” Sooyoung says as she starts going through a new pile of newspapers.

Jungeun doesn’t really have an answer. She just _is_. She stays quiet for a minute before answering.

“I don’t know,” She shrugs, “I guess it’s the mystery of it all? And like, how close it hit home.”

“You knew her?”

“Not really. I just knew about her. Like, we went to the same school and I’d always see her around, but that’s about it.”

Sooyoung nods.

“It’s honestly so wild to me that you never heard about this case before,” Jungeun’s tone suggests that there’s some type of question there. But she’s not sure of what she’s asking, “It was everywhere.”

“Was it…?” Sooyoung looks as if she’s trying to remember something. Eyes squinted, head angled upwards. But her search for any type of memory from the event seems to be unsuccessful as she pouts her lips.

“I mean just look at all the articles written about it. Plus, it’s everything everyone talked about for like a week...then it just died down and everyone forgot it ever happened.”

Sooyoung looks incredulous. She’s often very up to date with everything around her. “Yeah,” It’s all she says, “I guess it’s kinda weird…”

Jungeun’s attention is stolen by the newspaper she holds in her hands. The spread is centered around an interview done with some of Yeojin’s classmates. They all paint her under the same picture. It’s the picture that Jungeun already has. What changes, though, is the way Yerim is depicted. There’s one girl that does most of the talking during the interview, and she seems to believe that Yerim has some direct connection to Yeojin’s disappearance.

“She’s a weird kid,” The interviewee says, “She fools other people but not me.”

Jungeun winces at the cheesiness of the words but continues reading.

“You know, Yerim hanging out in the woods with Yeojin didn’t seem  _that_  weird at first, a lot of people go there…but  _alone_? Who does that?! She keeps going there even after her best friend disappeared. What kind of psycho does that?!”

The interviewer proceeds to ask this girl what got her so convinced that Yerim would want to harm her best friend. She has a very weak case, but she does say something that intrigues Jungeun, “Well, around the time of the disappearance they weren’t hanging out as often. I don’t know if there was a fight or if they just drifted apart, but something definitely went down between the two.” The girl also mentions how Yerim is ‘always saying weird things’, which Jungeun can testify in favour of…but maybe that part has nothing to do with hurting Yeojin and everything to do with the girl being a quote unquote psychic.

Jungeun still isn’t sure whether she believes that or not but believing it would surely explain some things about Yerim.

Jungeun huffs out loud, feeling conflicted. Sooyoung notices this.

“What does it say?” She asks, regarding to the article that clearly got Jungeun feeling troubled.

“It’s talking about this girl that Yeojin used to be best friends with. Apparently, some people think she’s a possible suspect...”

“But you don’t?” Sooyoung catches the lack of confidence in Jungeun’s words.

Jungeun takes a picture of the article with her phone to send it to the group chat, and then hands it to Sooyoung, who eyes it curiously.

“I don’t know. I mean, sure the girl is weird. But not a  _bad_  weird. Definitely not a i’ll-murder-my-best-friend type of weird.”

“Then weird how?”

Jungeun chuckles to herself, “Like…she says she’s a psychic or something like that.”

Sooyoung’s eyebrows arch almost comically, “Oh.”

“Yeah…” Jungeun says, “I don’t know if I believe that, but I definitely don’t believe she did this. She looked very upset by it all, actually.”

“I mean it seems kinda weird to make up something like that, especially in her position…I don’t see why anyone would do that,” Sooyoung shrugs, “But who knows.”

“So you believe it?”

“The being a psychic thing?”

Jungeun nods.

“Kinda,” Says Sooyoung, “I have a friend that’s like that too…ish”

She’s so nonchalant about it that it actually baffles Jungeun. Is everyone in this town magical?? Did Jungeun miss the memo?!

“Your friend is a psychic?!” She blurts out, voice coming out a bit too high.

Sooyoung laughs softly, amused at Jungeun’s reaction, “Something like that,” She waves her hands dismissively, “It’s hard to explain.”

Jungeun leaves it at that even though everything inside of her is screaming to beg for a more thorough explanation.

“You don’t believe in this type of things, huh?” Sooyoung speaks again.

Jungeun lets her thoughts wander for a bit.  _Does she?_ She honestly has no idea anymore. She tries to think of an answer until she forgets what the question even was.

Sooyoung’s laugh is what snaps her out of it. “You look cute spaced out,” She says.

Ah, great, now Jungeun’s face is burning up again.

She says thanks, or at least that’s what she thinks she does. She’s too distracted focusing on the way Sooyoung’s cheeks look when they smile. They look like apples. And oof- Jungeun’s staring again. Why is Sooyoung so nice to stare at?

“Um, anyway! Your question, right-” Jungeun tries to distract herself by once again becoming  a mumbling mess. Good job, Jungeun.

“Well, it feels like I  _should_  believe in all that stuff,” She continues, eloquently this time, “But I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Sooyoung smirks and looks at Jungeun right in the eyes. It feels intoxicating, “Most things don’t.”

* * *

Sooyoung is too immersed in her own thoughts to be listening to any of what Jinsoul has been saying for the last fifteen minutes. The girl’s been rambling about god knows what, and her ability to maintain a one-sided conversation is quite amazing, to be honest.

Sooyoung doesn’t tune her out on purpose, she just happens to be distracted with something else. _Someone_ else.

It’ been hours since she left the library, but her mind keeps replaying scenes from earlier over and over again, and really what else can she do other than give those all her attention. For some reason she can’t stop thinking about it, about Jungeun.

The energy in that room had been so weird. Not bad or good, particularly. Just… _weird._  She thinks Jungeun is weird, too. In an odd, endearing way that makes Sooyoung want to know everything about the girl. It almost feels like a crave; a need to understand the girl. To get closer to her.

Since the first time she saw Jungeun at that convenience store, Sooyoung has unawarely gifted the girl hours worth of her imagination. Daydream after daydream all starring Jungeun. More than Sooyoung owning these thoughts it feels as if these thoughts own her. She gets lost on them and lets ‘em have full control. She really can’t explain it. It’s an attraction bigger than her. Bigger than she can even begin to comprehend.   

Jinsoul has enough of being ignored by her friend after not hearing her voice for over twenty minutes.

“Ugh,” Jinsoul says awfully loudly, “Fine, I’ll ask. What is it with you?”

The question manages to gain Sooyoung’s attention. She looks somewhat ashamed and her cheeks become tinted by a rosy shade.

This attitude is what gives her away, and what helps Jinsoul understand the situation.

“Oh,” Jinsoul says, smiling devilish, “I see. Were you with  _that_  girl earlier?”

Sooyoung rolls her eyes at the tone her friend uses. She had told Jinsoul about Jungeun when she first met the girl and made the mistake of calling her cute. Since then Jinsoul hasn’t  stopped teasing her about it.

“Yeah.”

Jinsoul  _literally_ says ‘owo’ out loud and immediately after raises her eyebrows in a suggestive manner, “What is going in there?”

“Literally nothing,” Sooyoung huffs, “I don’t think she’s interested, anyway.”

“Who wouldn’t be interested in you?”

“See, that’s what I thought,” Sooyoung agrees with her, of course she does, “But she was much more interested in doing her work than me.”

“I mean, maybe she was just actually busy, you know. I don’t think that means anything,” Jinsoul dismisses Sooyoung’s worries.

“It’s not fair,” Sooyoung dramatically sighs, “Cute girls not liking me shouldn’t be allowed.”

Jinsoul shakes her head, “Wow, the concept of not being liked back really got you messed up, huh?”

“Yeah, who knew that could happen!” Sooyoung pouts.

“Definitely. She must be from another dimension or something, that’s totally the only reasonable explanation.”

Sooyoung  grumbles as her palm hits Jinsoul’s thigh, “Oh shut up, you have no right to make jokes about what’s reasonable and what isn’t.”

Jinsoul giggles. Sooyoung’s right.

Suddenly Jinsoul’s laugh halts, and a gasp comes out of her mouth.

Her face freezes with a worried expression.

“I forgot to pick up my sister from her singing class,” She whispers.

Sooyoung barely has time to blink when Jinsoul is already running out the door.

It’s the fourth time that week.

* * *

Jungeun never agreed to this. Actually, she still thinks it is an awful idea, and when this inevitably ends poorly she’ll have the satisfaction of loudly screaming ‘I told you so’ to everyone. Now, however, there’s not much she can do as Haseul, Vivi, Heejin  _and_  Hyunjin all stand with her outside of Yerim’s house.

She partly takes the blame for this and only cause it was her mistake to let them know about her plans to talk with Yerim for a second time. Somehow, they all took Jungeun sharing her plans as an invitation to join her. It had been impossible to convince them otherwise after that, clearly.

Haseul had even gone as far as saying that if Yerim was, in fact,  a suspect, then there was no way that she would allow Jungeun to spend any more alone time with a possible murderer, “You escaped her once, but God knows what she could do if you question her again!” She had said.

“She might feel threatened…Nothing good ever comes from that,” Vivi added.

“Think of us as backup,” Was Heejin’s shot at convincing Jungeun to let them join, even though it was clear that they were all tagging alone out of curiosity, and not any actual concern for Jungeun’s well-being.

“Yeah!” Had insisted Hyunjin, “If anything happens, I won’t hesitate to fight her! I’m like, the only one fit enough to do so, too!”

Jungeun ignored the subtle shade in that, but finally stopped saying no to their begging an only because it was starting to get annoying. Important disclaimer here, she never said yes either. You know, just pointing that out to be free of guilt in case this goes south real quick….Technicalities or whatever.

Jungeun had texted Yerim a few hours before, asking if she could go to her house cause there’s no way she’d ever show up unannounced. At least she still has  _some_ manners left. She didn’t mention she’d be having extra company but hey that’s why it says some manners and not  _all_.

The shock in Yerim’s face is evident when she opens the door and finds five girls instead of one. She’s fast to recover, though, and greets them all with a blinding smile.

“Please, come in!” She says politely.

There’s no dog this time.

“So, what’s up?” Yerim asks once they’re all settled in the living room.

“I don’t know, Choi Yerim,” Says Hyunjin, moving her face awfully close towards the girl in question, “You tell me.”

An uncomfortable laugh escapes Yerim, who looks at Jungeun for any type of explanation. She has none, honestly. Her friends are just weird. Is Hyunjin even her friend…?

Thankfully, Heejin quickly controls the situation by grabbing Hyunjin’s hand and dragging her back to her seat. The taller girl goes immediately smitten and completely forgets about what she was doing seconds ago.

Yerim watches their interaction closely and a huge smile takes over her face, “Am I seeing things or did you two  _finally_ get together?”

Heejin shyly nods.

“Aha!” Screams Yerim, “I knew it would happen sooner or later.”

Her unexpected words catch everyone by surprise, except Vivi, who just shrugs, “No need to be a psychic for that, pretty sure the entire town knew.”

“Shut up!” Heejin shrieks.

The confident way in which Heejin usually carries herself is completely gone as her face goes entirely red and she hides behind Hyunjin’s shoulder.

It’s kinda cute and Hyunjin doesn’t seem that scary when she’s swooning over her adorably embarrassed girlfriend.

“Anyway,” Jungeun interrupts the moment, “That’s not what we’re here for.”

“Of course!” Says Yerim, “…Um. What are you here for?”

“I wanted to ask you something-”

Jungeun is interrupted by Vivi clearing her throat. She sighs.

“ _We_  wanted to ask you something,” Jungeun corrects her words, earning a nod of approval from Vivi, “We were informed by a, um, confidential source that you and Yeojin weren’t on the best terms when she disappeared.”

“By confidential source she means some random newspaper,” Clarifies Haseul.

If looks could kill, Haseul would have been murdered by Jungeun as soon as those words left her mouth.

Yerim ignores those two as she speaks, “Oh, yeah. Did I not mention that?”

Jungeun shakes her head.

“Ah,” Says Yerim awkwardly, “That probably seems really weird…It wasn’t that big of a deal, really.”

“How long had you two been like that?” Haseul asks.

Yerim thinks for a while, “A few weeks? Maybe, a bit more.”

“What caused it?”

Yerim shrugs, “Nothing. Things like that just happen sometimes, you know.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Says Jungeun, eyeing Yerim closely, looking for any body language that may betray her.

“Y-yeah,” Yerim shifts in her chair, “You don’t actually believe I would harm my best friend, do you?”

Heejin opens her mouth and everyone looks her way, expecting her to talk. She just shakes her head dismissively.

She has to fight the urge to scream ‘of course not’, cause honestly, there’s nothing about Yerim that screams danger or even hints at her having a single evil bone in her body. As a very active member of any possible activity in school, Heejin has a pretty clear idea of most if not every single student in their school, and Yerim has always been the bright happy go lucky kinda kid. Nothing but lovely, honestly. On top of that, her friendship with Yeojin never seemed anything other than harmless. They were cute together.

She hadn’t really thought about it until Jungeun sent them a picture of that one article but those two  _did_ seem a bit iffy in the months prior to Yeojin’s disappearance.

Heejin wondered if her memories were betraying her and acting biased by this sudden new information, so she had asked Hyunjin about it. Hyunjin actually agreed with her, and even mentioned the fact that Yeojin would often bring that topic up. She’d say that Yerim was acting weird and distant for no reason, and she didn’t know what to do. ‘Why can’t good things never last in this town?!’ Yeojin had complained. At that time Hyunjin hadn’t thought much about it, and only told Yeojin to not worry too much, that it’s probably nothing.

She tries to not regret it now.

Heejin is snapped back into the conversation by Jungeun….squealing?

“What?” Says Yerim in an amused tone, “Are you _scared_ , Jungeun?”

She hears Vivi fight back a laugh and honestly, she has never been more confused in her life. Ugh, you zone out for three minutes and suddenly you miss out on everything….

“Pfft. Don’t be ridiculous,” Says Jungeun, “I’m not scared.”

She definitely is.

“I just don’t see the point in going to the woods. There is nothing to investigate there!”

“I think Yerim is right, we could find something there. It sounds like a good idea, could be interesting,” Hyunjin says way too excited about this and Jungeun hates it.

“Yeah, it’s always good to check out the crime scene! Plus, it’d help us understand what Yeojin went through better,” Vivi explains. It sounds somewhat reasonable and if Jungeun wasn’t internally freaking out she’d agree with her.

“So, it’s settled then!” Says Yerim clapping her hands, “Let’s go tomorrow. Can everyone go tomorrow?”

Everyone looks around, waiting for any objection. They’re all free.

Jungeun panics and tries to get away from this one last time, “I, uh. I’m busy, tomorrow, actually.”

“Oh, yeah?” Says Haseul, clearly not buying it.

Jungeun feels betrayed, she hoped that Haseul would be on her side.

“What do you have?” Asks Hyunjin.

“Um, dance stuff.” Jungeun mumbles.

“I doubt you’ll be there all day, though.”

Damn it, she’s right.

“But it’s just practice, right? Just finish early and then we’ll be good to go.” Says Heejin, somewhat caught on where the conversation is at. Apparently Yerim is on the clear now and will help them investigate.

Jungeun can’t come up with any other excuse...they’re onto her…it’s too late, she can’t get away now.

“Oh!” Says Yerim excitedly, “I gotta walk pass the dance studio when I head to the woods. I can stop by and meet you there, and then we can walk together!”

“O-Okay,” Jungeun says, accepting her fate.

“Great!” Says Vivi, “Then, tomorrow, around two, let’s all meet near that one official path to enter the woods and then part from there!”

Why is everyone so hyped for this, Jungeun needs an explanation right now.

Everyone starts talking about their own theories of what they could find in the woods. They all sound too exciting to be true. Jungeun can’t really think of anything. To be honest, she can’t really think of anything other than the death deed that she just signed.

She sighs.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day.


	3. a walk on the edge

Jungeun had no actual intentions of being at the dance studio today but now she was more thankful than ever. It’s only one in the afternoon when Jungeun decides she’s done with dance practice. She still has an hour to burn before Yerim arrives and they go to the woods, so she just wanders around for a while. Maybe she can stop by the convenience store to grab something to munch on while she waits. She shudders at the thought that whatever snack she decides to have could be her actual last meal, ever.

Honestly, what if she steps into that forest only to never come out of it again. She’s not being dramatic, really, that’s totally possible. Like, it’s happened before. Jungeun’s hatred towards that damned spot is no secret. No matter how many people tell her that it’s not that bad and that she’s just being a coward, her perception of it will not be changed.

Those woods feel like a place that shouldn’t be there. They always have. It’s such a dark and abandoned space, filled with absolutely no evidence that humans reside anywhere near it. It feels vacant. Such a contrast with the town that it surrounds. It’s as if in that area the universe simply forgot to make stuff happen. Everything ceases to exist. Even sound. Everything feels like a background noise, even your own thoughts. Your own existence. It’s hollow and being there makes you feel hollow, too. It’s an emptiness that dawns upon you.

So, really, can you blame Jungeun for not liking being anywhere near it?

Sure, maybe she is a _bit_ sensitive towards this type of stuff, and maybe after twenty years of living in this town she should be used to this type of feeling cause, honestly, it is _always_ in the back of your mind. Every place feels slightly…off. Like it doesn’t belong there, but somehow it does. Like you shouldn’t be there, but somehow you are. Everyone knows that feeling, it’s always weighing you down, how could they not? No one ever mentions it, though. Isn’t that the way things are supposed to be? It’s all they’ve ever known, so they don’t really see anything strange in it. It’s the way life works there. It’s never occurred to them that this doesn’t happen to everyone else.

For Jungeun, though, there are some places that are the opposite of all that. They make her feel grounded, _real_. They’re very limited, though. This dance studio is one of them, for example. This place always feels right. When she dances, she feels like there’s no other place she should be at and her existence never feels quite as right as when she’s immersed in a choreography. It’s such a familiar feeling.

Jungeun is snapped out of her thoughts when she hears loud music coming down the hallway she’s passing through. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, of course music is always playing in a dance academy. But she feels something pulling her down there. Be it because of her curiosity, boredom, or just the sense that that’s exactly where she should go. Without even realizing it, Jungeun’s already opening the door to the room holding all that sound. She does so slowly, careful to not disturb whoever might be inside.

There’s a single person inside. It’s a girl. She doesn’t notice Jungeun and so just continues dancing and _God_ , Jungeun thinks _, it’s so beautiful._ Suddenly a warm feeling takes over Jungeun’s entire body. There it is again, that sense of familiarity. Of belonging.

Jungeun’s not sure of how long she stares for and has no idea of when exactly it is that she notices that the dancing girl is Sooyoung. But once she does it only becomes even more beautiful. Sooyoung moves elegantly. So elegantly, she doesn’t even look like a person anymore, no physical being could ever be able to move like _that_. She’s one with the air that surrounds her, she moves along with it, not through it. It’s sharp, but soft. Captivating; just like her.

Jungeun is completely in a daze. She’s only shaken out of it when the music suddenly stops, and it feels as if her own source of oxygen has been cut, too. Sooyoung turns to look at her, in surprise. She’s out of breath, and her chest rises and falls violently as she tries to recover it. She’s covered by a thin layer of sweat too, it makes it seem as if she’s glowing. Jungeun doesn’t notice it or anything, let alone find it attractive.

“Jungeun?” Sooyoung asks, gasping.

Jungeun looks like a deer caught in headlights.

“How long have you been standing there for?”

Good question, she honestly has no idea.

“Uh,” Jungeun says, suddenly feeling her mouth dry, “Not much.”

“….I think” She adds very lowly as an afterthought, mostly to herself.

Sooyoung smirks knowingly for some reason and starts walking closer to Jungeun, who’s still awkwardly standing near the door frame.

“Like what you see?”

Jungeun blushes so furiously at that that it even reaches her ears. It’s so easy to get that response from her, and because she looks so stupidly adorable while at it Sooyoung sees no reason on why she shouldn’t make Jungeun feel embarrassed at least once every time they see each other.

“Uh, I mean,” Jungeun replies, smooth as ever, “You are a very good dancer. That was amazing, really.”

The honesty in the compliment catches Sooyoung off guard and she shyly smiles back.

“Thank you, that means a lot,” Sooyoung’s voice sounds incredibly soft.

“So, what are you doing here?” Sooyoung extends her hand for Jungeun, who takes it almost involuntarily. It’s _so_ soft. Sooyoung drags her to the middle of the room and makes them sit on the floor. “Did you come just to spy on me? Cause I’d be super flattered but like it’s also getting creepy how I always run into you.”

“You wished,” Jungeun, replies “I was just doing some practicing, it's just a coincidence…a lucky one…”

Jungeun doesn’t know what came over her when she said that last phrase, but suddenly she feels really hot and is extremely self-aware of her hand being in Sooyoung’s. When did they even start holding them? Should she let go now? There’s really no reason to be grabbing each other’s hands like this. But…it feels so nice. She wants to keep doing it.

“Maybe it’s fate,” Sooyoung suddenly says, and even adds a corny wink to it. It makes Jungeun freak out even more. Why can’t she stop freaking out? She thinks she even squeezes Sooyoung’s hand by accident as a response, and- was that Sooyoung squeezing back?

“Or…” Sooyoung smiles, “Maybe it’s just the fact that I come here literally every day but that’s less exciting, isn’t?”

“Whoa,” Exclaims Jungeun, impressed, “Everyday?!”

Sooyoung nods.

“You must really like it, huh?”

The girl nods again, evidently more excited this time, “It’s my favorite thing, it always has. It’s just…my thing.”

Suddenly it dawns on Jungeun how lucky she had been to witness Sooyoung’s routine earlier. Without even knowing it, she had caught the girl in her most vulnerable and personal moment. It almost feels like a privilege. She can only hope she gets to experience it again sometime.

“It shows,” She says, fondly recalling how much in her element Sooyoung had seemed while dancing.

“You know,” Sooyoung speaks in such a delicate manner. It feels as if the entire world pauses for a moment just so Jungeun can listen to her, “I’ve always liked dancing, but I only started taking it seriously during high school.”

Jungeun has a tough time believing that. “Really? I would have imagined you’ve been doing it your whole life.”

Sooyoung shakes her head, but Jungeun doesn’t miss the way her lips curve and the shy laugh that escapes her mouth, “I only mustered the courage to really get into it during high school. Plus, my parents wouldn’t let me join any dance lessons, they only wanted me to concentrate in studying. So, I had to wait till I could find a way to pay for my own lessons.”

Jungeun listens attentively and says nothing in hopes that Sooyoung just continues talking.

She does.

“When I entered high school I started tutoring, I made enough to pay for my own lessons and the rest is history!”

 _Of course_ she’s the type of person to risk _everything_ for what she loves and work hard to get it.

“And how do they feel about it now?” Asks Jungeun, genuinely interested in the story.

“They found out eventually, but my grades were better than ever, and I was making my own money, so they had no reason to not let me. They noticed how happy it makes me, so when I decided that I wanted to dance for the rest of my live; for a living, they had no option than to fully support me, really.”

“Wow,” Jungeun says under her breath. There are practically stars in her eyes and Sooyoung just officially became the coolest person she knows, “That’s….amazing.”

“Yeah! I’m glad it all worked out,” Sooyoung seems bashful, and it totally clashes with the perception that Jungeun had of her. She thought she’d be cocky and completely unfazed by compliments, but she seems to have been awfully mistaken. It’s cute.

“If it’s meant to be, its meant to be, you know,” Jungeun’s eyes land on the clock in the wall, she winces when she notices she should probably get going.

“Ah,” She doesn’t mean to sound so disappointed, it just happens naturally, “I’m supposed to meet a friend in a bit…”

Sooyoung frowns for a while, but then gaps, as if she just remembered something, “I was also supposed to meet with someone near the entrance _fifteen_ minutes ago….” She quirks her eyebrows, and makes the best out of the opportunity, “Wanna walk together?”

Jungeun lets out a laugh, “Sure.”

Their hands brush when they walk, it's completely unintentional, but what isn’t unintentional is the fact that none of them move to make more space between them.

They walk extremely slow even though they probably have people waiting on them, but who cares about other people. It is only Sooyoung and Jungeun right now.

Sooyoung candidly asks Jungeun about how she got into dancing. It’s not half as exciting as Sooyoung’s story. She just picked it up as a hobby during middle school, and really liked it.

Soon enough, they’re already near the entrance of the academy.

Sooyoung looks around and her face softens when she recognizes Jinsoul, waiting on her as she sips on some milk inside the convenience store.

Yerim seems nowhere to be found, so Jungeun just makes company to Sooyoung as she goes to meet her friend.

Jungeun notices a text in her phone, it’s from Yerim. “Im on my way!” She had sent that about fifteen minutes ago, she should be here soon enough.

The bell in the door rings as Sooyoung and Jungeun enter the store. Jinsoul turns towards them and squints her eyes at Sooyoung.

“Dude, finally!” She says, her tone attempting to be harsh, but failing miserably, “I’ve been waiting for _at least_ an hour!”

Sooyoung just laughs and rolls her eyes at the girl.

“Sorry, got…distracted,” She says, looking towards Jungeun, who awkwardly waves her hand at Jinsoul.

Jinsoul looks at her in a questioning manner, and then back at Sooyoung, raising her eyebrows curiously.

“Jinsoul, this is Jungeun,” She signals to each girl respectively as she says their names, “And Jungeun, this is Jinsoul!”

Realization draws upon Jinsoul, and a smug look appears in her face, “Oh!” She says a bit too loud, “So you’re Jungeun! Nice to finally meet you, Sooyoung has talked _soooooo_ much about you!”

That earns Jinsoul a smack in her shoulder from Sooyoung, “Don’t listen to her…”

Are Sooyoung’s cheeks….blushing? Jinsoul giggles in the side and Jungeun feels very…confused. But, still endeared at how shy Sooyoung has been acting.

“Sure,” Jungeun flashes a smile, “Nice to meet you, too.”

Just as they’re done with the formalities Jungeun’s phone starts ringing, she quickly excuses herself before answering. It’s Yerim.

“You’re here? Ah, yeah, there should be a convenience store somewhere to your right, come meet me here.”

After that she hangs up, and just before she can say anything to the other two girls Yerim is already walking through the doors.

“Hey!” She says cheerfully as her eyes land on Jungeun, “Ready to- oh, Jinsoul? Hey, there!”

Jungeun looks questioningly towards Sooyoung and Jinsoul. Sooyoung seems as puzzled as Jungeun feels. But Jinsoul looks a hundred times more confused than anyone present in the store.

“Wow….” Jinsoul’s words are slower than usual, and the puzzled expression on her only intensifies by the second. She looks at Yerim, then at Jungeun, and now back at Yerim again. She looks completely astonished; even Yerim seems taken aback by the blonde’s behaviour.

“You know each other?” Jungeun asks.

“Kinda,” Says Yerim.

“No,” Jinsoul answers at the same time.

Great, that doesn’t make things any more confusing at all, or anything.

“Why are you here? How-” Jinsoul looks scandalized and shakes her head, gathering her thoughts, “Nevermind.”

“What’s going on?” Sooyoung snaps.

Jungeun and Yerim both shrug. Jinsoul is the only one to speak, “I don’t know…Sooyoung, let’s get out of here.”

In record time Jinsoul is already exiting through the door, dragging Sooyoung along with her by the sleeve.

“What?! Bye! I’m sorry about thi-” Sooyoung barely manages to sputter those words before she’s forced out of the store.

Jungeun and Yerim stand in the middle of it now, complete dazed by what just happened.

“…”

“…”

“Well…” Jungeun is the one to break the silence, “That was…”

“Something,” Yerim completes the sentence for her.

It definitely was more than _something_.

Yerim seems to recover rather quickly and moves to check the time, “Hm. We should get going.

* * *

 Jungeun and Yerim walk the route towards the woods silently. At least they do so for the first five minutes until Jungeun can’t hold her curiosity any longer without feeling like she might actually explode.

“Hey, so, what was all that about?” She tries to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“What was what about?” Yerim completely avoids eye contact and Jungeun just knows she’s playing dumb, for whatever reason.

She doesn’t want to jump to any type of conclusions, especially now that she’s decided to fully trust Yerim -she wouldn’t even know where to start, anyway, but something is definitely up between her and Jinsoul.

Yesterday Yerim had managed to affirmatively eliminate any suspicions of her being involved in Yeojin’s disappearance. For some reason it seemed very hard to believe that she would harm her best friend. But, she sure is acting weird right now.

“You know what I mean,” Jungeun’s tone is slightly sharper now, “The thing with Jinsoul, what was that?”

Yerim’s signature smile faltered for a few seconds, until she spoke again, “Honestly, I don’t know? I have no idea why she reacted that way…”

“But how do you know her?”

Yerim takes her time with that one. She seems to be considering all her options. Jungeun waits, she doesn’t wanna pressure her but she’s also becoming a bit impatient. It shouldn’t be a hard question…

“I just do,” Yerim shrugs.

Anticlimactic answer. It honestly offends Jungeun how the younger girl thinks she’s gonna get away with just saying that.

“Okay, but _where_ from?” Jungeun insists.

Yerim huffs, “I don’t know…from around town, I guess? We just happen to see each other around a lot and have talked a few times.”

Jungeun eyes her carefully, looks at her through squinted eyes, “And you don’t know what her freak out was about?”

Yerim shakes her head slightly and frowns, “It surprised me as much as you.”

“Hm,” Jungeun contemplates Yerim’s words for a minute. She _did_ look pretty confused back then, and even now, as she answers, “You swear?”

Yerim nods, and dramatically lifts her right hand, “I swear!”

She sticks her pinky out and signals Jungeun to do the same, “Here,” She says as they intertwine their fingers together, “Pinky promise.”

“Pinky promise,” Jungeun repeats, fully convinced.

* * *

Jungeun and Yerim are the last ones to arrive. Heejin, Hyunjin, Haseul and Vivi are all already gathered near the entrance to the woods. It is a ridiculously narrow path that no human could ever fit through but somehow, they all manage to stand in it.

Jungeun feels fatally unprepared, shouldn’t they have a plan? A map? For the love of God how did no one think of bringing some flashlights?! She had been so busy worrying about feeling scared that she totally forgot to _actually_ prepare for it. It’s still not too late to back out, right? But, _ugh_ , she still has a pride to take care of and honestly, there’s a tiny spark of curiosity about what could possibly be in there and that might be enough to light her courage. That’s a fire that she does not want to get burnt by.

“You guys ready to go?” Asks Hyunjin, still sounding too eager for Jungeun’s comfort.

They all look so at ease…how.

A chorus of yeses is heard and Jungeun can barely manage to nod in response. She’s definitely not ready and she never will be. No one seems to notice her uneasiness, and they all start walking deeper into the woods.

It’s not that bad at first, it really isn’t. Sounds from the city can still be heard for a while. The engines of cars passing by, some honking here and there, if you look behind you and over the trees, the huge sign that sits on the roadside can still be seen. It’s an advert for the local church. “Jesus saves you” It writes in huge red letters; someone had vandalized it and spray painted it into becoming “Jesus can’t save you.” Such a welcoming sight...especially considering that’s the first thing that can be seen when entering the town.

To no one's surprise Yerim is the one that ends up leading the group. They seem to be walking aimlessly, but everyone’s too busy looking at where they step to care about that. It’s mostly quiet for a while, except for the occasional grunting and a high pitch scream from Haseul when she thinks there’s something climbing her leg. She gets laughed at when they realize it’s just a branch that got caught up on her shoe.

They’ve made it deep enough to the point that humanity stops existing. There seems to be less light in this area and maybe it has to do with the trees getting taller and thicker the more they advance. All that can be seen is endless green and some foggy mountains in the horizon. They seem so dull and somber. Jungeun is convinced the world occurs in black and white over there.

It’s _so_ quiet now, Jungeun can hear every single breath each girl takes, she can even hear the wind that passes by. There are voices hidden in it, she’s not sure she wants to know what they’re saying.

Her whole body gets covered by goosebumps and she really can’t take the silence anymore.

“God, I’m so creeped out by this place,” Her voice sounds unfamiliar to her own ears, it cuts like a sharp knife through the silence. It’s not that loud but the noise leaves her ears ringing, “I swear I must have like, died in this place in some past life or something.”

“That’s sad,” Vivi’s voice sounds slightly uncomfortable, too. She’s walking right behind Jungeun, but her voice sounds unbelievably far away.

“The dying or the being here for a second time?”

“Both,” She replies almost automatically.

“Yeah, well. There’s no escape to this place.”

Before Vivi or anyone else for that matter could give any type of respond, Yerim stops walking all of a sudden. The abrupt stop makes Hyunjin and Heejin, who were walking right behind her, crash against her back. This produces a domino effect and suddenly everyone is bumping against each other.

“What the hell, Yerim?!” Screams Hyunjin.

The youngest girl turns around and faces the rest of the group. She seems distressed and makes a whiny noise.

“What is it?” Asks Haseul, slightly worried over the girl’s behaviour.

Jungeun peeks her head and has a direct visual access to what made Yerim stop in her tracks.

_Oh._

It’s police tape.

It can’t be, right? There’s no way that’s related to Yeojin…right?

“Is that-“ Heejin starts but isn’t able to finish.

They all notice what’s causing the commotion. No one says anything.

The tape actually covers a huge portion of the area. It’s like the police had secluded the whole track that Yeojin took the day she disappeared. They had unknowingly been walking right next to it the whole way through.

“I had never come across it,” Yerim speaks calmly, but there’s an edge to her voice that hides much more.

A few beats of silence pass by before there’s any sound again.

“There is a thousand ways you can go about in this forest and this my first time-” She slightly chokes up, and unless Jungeun is imagining things, it seems as if Yerim is blinking away tears, “Seeing it, it’s my first time seeing it.”

The atmosphere feels significantly heavier than a minute ago. Jungeun is inclined to think that the shift has nothing to do with seeing the police tape; there’s something off with this specific spot, the air simply feels different. It’s even colder, and she can feel the hairs at the back of her neck standing up. But that makes no sense. It’s just her being emotional. Of course it has everything to do with their finding of a crime scene.

Initially they had no idea of what they were looking for, of where they were going. They just knew they were walking into the forest cause that’s where Yeojin was last seen. So presumably, _something_ must come out of that, right? But, oh wow, had they found more than something.

Jungeun is about to suggest that maybe they should turn back around. There doesn’t seem to be anything else for them to do, they’ve apparently found what they came here for and she doubts they’ll found anything else. She really has every valid reason and intention to tell everyone it’s time to go back but for some inexplicable reason, when she opens her mouth to talk, words that are completely different from all that are what come out.

“Let’s look closer,” Jungeun says, to everyone’s surprise, included her own.

The rest of the girls look at her almost like she’s crazy, no one dares to move a centimeter closer. No one but Jungeun.

“Jungeun wait-“ Haseul tries to stop her, but it’s useless as Jungeun is already trespassing the police tape.

It’s like something clicks when she steps into the secluded zone. The tape doesn’t go any further into the forest, so this must be exactly the last place where Yeojin stood. She’s sure of it. She can feel it.

Suddenly there’s rush running through Jungeun’s veins. A desperate desire to do _something_ but she has no idea what. She feels like this place has been waiting for her. No, more like _she’s_ the one that’s been waiting to get here. And now, she’s finally arrived. It took so long, but now she’s here.

She feels like she’s floating all of a sudden. It’s a dreamy sensation. Everything around her feels like a blur and for a second, she forgets about everything. About where she’s at, what she’s doing, who she’s with. There’s a force pulling her somewhere. She doesn’t know where, but it wants to take her away

“Jungeun!” A voice calls her out. It sounds so far away, it almost doesn’t sound real.

“Jungeun!!!” It sounds much more forceful now. She can recognize it. It’s Haseul’s, “Get back here!”

The feeling disappears almost faster than as what it appeared. Jungeun feels dizzy as her surroundings become clearer. It’s almost as if she just nosedived back into reality. Disappointment fills her entire body.

Everyone is looking at her wearing worried expressions. Haseul is extending out her hand for Jungeun to take it, “We should go,” She says.

The walk back is silent until Yerim sneaks next to Jungeun.

“What got into you?!” She murmurs, it’s as if she doesn’t want the rest of the girls to hear, “You were like, gone. You looked hypnotized or something. It was insane.”

Jungeun only hums in acknowledgement. She doesn’t know what to say.

“Bet now you can understand Yeojin, huh?”

Jungeun rises her head to look directly at Yerim, but the other girl is looking straight ahead, avoiding Jungeun’s eyes. Yerim rushes to catch up with Hyunjin, who currently walks in front of the group, and leaves a very confused Jungeun behind.

Jungeun groans.

What in the world is happening here?

* * *

They’re more than a block away from the dance academy when Sooyoung grows tired of getting dragged by Jinsoul.

She shakes Jinsoul’s grip off her wrist and refuses to move a centimeter more unless she gets an explanation from her friend.

“Jinsoul, what the hell?!”

Jinsoul tries to make Sooyoung move but the brunette is practically nailed to the ground and considerably stronger than Jinsoul. There really is no point in trying. Jinsoul accepts her defeat and lets out a loud sight, “Ugh, Sooyoung, let’s go! I need to get home! Move-”

“No,” Sooyoung cuts in quickly, “I’m not moving until you tell me what’s happening.”

Jinsoul rolls her eyes, she definitely doesn’t have the patience to deal with this right now.

“Nothing's happening!” Jinsoul says in a pathetic attempt to escape the conversation. Sooyoung only replays by making a face that shows both disbelief and annoyance.

“Whatever,” Jinsoul says, “Stay here, then. I’ll just go alone!”

“No, you’re not!” Sooyoung quickly holds both of Jinsoul’s arms so tight that they could probably leave a mark or two.

Once again Jinsoul sighs in defeat, knowing that there’s no way she can outsmart Sooyoung with some lie or try to force her way out.

“Just tell me what’s going on,” Sooyoung’s grip gets softer and she delicately starts caressing the  faint red spots she had left, “You know you can trust me with anything…”

No longer being held back, Jinsoul could easily get away from Sooyoung and her curiosity, but that just feels like the wrong thing to do.

“It’s not that,” Jinsoul finally replays,  “I trust you.”

“Then?”

“I just…I can’t explain it to you right now because I can’t understand it _myself_ ”

Sooyoung frowns, feeling even more lost now, “What are you talking about?”

“Sooyoung, please. Let me figure this out and I promise that as soon as I find out, I’ll explain it all to you.”

Sooyoung takes a few breaths before figuring out what to say, “Is this about your dim-”

“I don’t  know,” Jinsoul stops Sooyoung before she starts speculating because she really sees no point in that, “Maybe. I’m not sure…”

“Fine,” Sooyoung mumbles, “But as soon as you know, you tell me or else…”

“Of course I will,” Jinsoul doesn’t need for Sooyoung to finish her threat before she’s agreeing with her.

She just hopes things don’t get too messy.

* * *

It’s not long before Sooyoung forgets about the whole Jinsoul ordeal. It goes to the back of her mind and is almost immediately buried by different and ‘more important’ things. Number one being Jungeun. Sooyoung feels slightly guilty about how they didn’t get to say a proper goodbye earlier and how weird the mood got because of their friends. So, of course, she has to text her now to excuse Jinsoul’s behaviour. Yeah, that’s definitely the only reason she’s dying to text her.

Sooyoung opens her messaging app and thinks of a dozen different ways in which she can redact her text. Why is she even overthinking this so much? She, more than often, is the decisive, confident type that doesn’t think twice before acting. But now, she can’t even hit send and her hands are shaking for some dumb reason.

“Ugh. Whatever, anything’s fine!” Sooyoung mumble to herself right as she hits send.

_‘hey sorry for earlier!! i dont know what got into Jinsoul :/ shes usually super nice and…normal..”_

The squeak that comes out of her mouth when the text gets sent is almost pathetic. It gets even worse when the message is read incredibly fast. It takes three seconds for it to get marked as read and for Sooyoung’s phone to be thrown with outstanding force to the other side of her room.

Sooyoung is left dumbfounded by her actions. Acting like a 15-year-old girl texting he first crush is definitely not her proudest moment. She runs to her phone and feels her soul return to her body when she notices the screen of it completely free from cracks. She notices the notifications from Jungeun and that calming, relieving feeling is gone.

 **_Jungeun:_ ** _hii. you’re sweet_

 **_Jungeun:_ ** _don’t worry about that!_

 **_Jungeun:_ ** _yerim is pretty weird herself haha so it’s fine_

Okay, Sooyoung thinks. That wasn’t bad; that was easy. Texting is _so_ easy. She relaxes after the nervousness of sending that first text is gone and starts easing her way into a normal conversation. She asks Jungeun what she did for the rest of the day –which prompts a long story about how she had to venture into haunted woods and Sooyoung founds it completely ridiculous but in the adorable way.

It’s adorable not only because a scared Jungeun ranting about how much she hates forests is the cutest thing Sooyoung has ever seen; but also because of how far Jungeun is willing to go just to investigate and quench her thirst for answer. How passionate Jungeun is over the things she loves just officially became Sooyoung’s favorite thing about her.

After that they talk about college and what they’re studying and Jungeun tells Sooyoung why she chose journalism and she seems so excited while talking about it that Sooyoung can perfectly imagine the stars in Jungeun’s eyes shining brighter than ever as she rants about her passion in life.

“I just think there’s something so special about journalism cause it is constantly reminding you about how delicate life is,” Jungeun’s text reads. “I think we forget that. How easily it can all disappear with no seemingly obvious reason. And when I get to cover story after story about rather awful  things happening, that reality becomes really hard to ignore.”

Sooyoung reads the girl’s words and becomes fascinated by them. She had never thought about it from that perspective. “The biggest things are always the most delicate,” Sooyoung replies.

“It’s like a balloon,” Jungeun ads and Sooyoung can’t really catch what she’s trying to say, but it makes her laugh a little.

“???”

“You know,” Jungeun writes, “How balloons can become so big, but then the bigger they are the more easily they pop…”

Sooyoung chuckles at the absurdity but yet considers it as a great metaphor. “Oh, yeah. Life is a balloon.”

Jungeun repeats Sooyoung’s text, restating that life is indeed a balloon.

“But hey,” Sooyoung writes, “Balloons are pretty. They can be kinda fun, too.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“I’d totally share a balloon with you,” Sends Sooyoung, adding a smiley face in the end.

Sooyoung notices that Jungeun reads the texts but takes longer than usual to reply.

A bubble with the girl’s reply finally pops out, “Yeah, i’d let you inflate my balloon.”

Sooyoung can’t help but laugh out loud when she reads Jungeun’s words, she sends her a keyboard smash hoping that those letters convey her feelings perfectly.

Jungeun replies with a what accompanied by several exclamation points.

“Blow my balloon? Really? That sounds...” Writes Sooyoung.

Jungeun replies rather quickly with two big capital letters: “NO.”

“Wait. I didn’t mean it like that. I was just- nevermind.” She then adds.

“Trying to be cute?,” Sooyoung replies, “Yeah, don’t worry, you’re good at that.”

The topic of the conversation moves on from that quickly, much to Jungeun’s wish. That doesn’t do much, though, cause Sooyoung finds a way to tease her no matter what they’re talking about.  

Their conversation goes on for hours and it’s so _nice_ and not nerve-wracking at all. It flows so naturally and right and Sooyoung feels silly for being so anxious to text her.

She feels as if she could say anything and uses that newly found confidence to do what she’s been wanting to do since she first met Jungeun.

Sooyoung obviously asks Jungeun if she can call her cause if she’s gonna do this, she’s gonna do it _right_ and asking this over text is anything but right.

Jungeun sounds sleepy and Sooyoung feels slightly bad for keeping her up late with her texts.

“So, what do you wanna tell me?” Jungeun asks.

“Go on a date with me.”

The line is silence for a minute. Sooyoung hears shuffling on the other side and she can’t even begin to picture what Jungeun might be doing. She hears her breathing, so she knows she’s still there.

Jungeun is too quiet and for some reason Sooyoung’s heart start to drop to her stomach.

“Jungeun?” She insists.

“I would love to. Of course I will.”

The biggest sigh of relief leaves Sooyoung’s mouth, “Great. Is tomorrow night okay for you?”

Jungeun hums, “It’s perfect.”

Sooyoung’s heart is beating faster than ever. She could scream for hours and that would still not be enough to express all the feelings going through her right now.

 _Perfect_.

That’s definitely a way to describe how this feels.

* * *

Jungeun spends the first half of her day in Vivi’s house. She’s telling her and Haseul about the conversation she had with Sooyoung last night. She also tells them about the date that she’ll be having later in the day. Jungeun fails terribly at hiding her excitement and her two friends don’t miss the opportunity to poke fun at her. Jungeun tends to be more than discrete with her feelings, so of course they won’t miss the opportunity. Jungeun doesn’t seem mind, though, nothing could ruin her mood right now.

As much as Haseul and Vivi love to clown the younger girl, they also make sure to give her advice on what to do in the date. It’s honestly pretty pointless cause Jungeun has had plenty of dates in the past; but somehow the anticipation and nervousness of a first date is present, so she listens to Haseul and Vivi’s every word with much attention.

The other half of her day is spent in getting ready for the date. She tries on at least twenty different outfits. Her judgement is based on whether it’d be Vivi approved or not. She wastes way too much time finding something to wear and finally settles on some skinny jeans and her favorite off-shoulder top– “you _have_ to show off your shoulder area” Vivi had said.

“I feel good so I look good. I feel good so I look good,” Jungeun started using that as a mantra after Haseul told her that being comfortable is key.

Hours pass by before she finally feels ready to head off. She smiles as she glances at her reflection in the mirror one last time, and then starts walking towards the restaurant. She should be there in not more than ten minutes and for the first time she’s thankful for living in a tiny town where she can get anywhere by foot. Jungeun is not dramatic or anything but as she walks she does a couple of breathing exercises.

Walking alone when the sun goes down has never been her favorite activity. It’s always way too eerie for her liking. The wind whispers in your ear and the dark watches you with way too much attention. Right now, though, Jungeun dares to say that the night is lovely and even the air feels nice. The flickering street lights don’t bother her in the slightest and she just k _nows_ that nothing could go wrong right now.

She’s oblivious to it all and she’s also very, _very_ wrong.

* * *

Sooyoung gets there unreasonably early. At least fifteen minutes before the accorded time, maybe twenty. It’s not that she’s nervous, Ha Sooyoung doesn’t get nervous (the whole freaking out over texting Jungeun doesn’t count). She just happens to be really impatient and, honestly, staying home too long after getting ready would only make her second doubt the way she’d done her hair, makeup and outfit. So, no thank you, she’d rather wait for Jungeun at the restaurant feeling as pretty and confident as ever.

Sooyoung had told Jungeun that she’d pick her up at her house, but Jungeun insisted to just meet at the restaurant. Sooyoung had gasped so ridiculously loud when Jungeun said that cause, _please_ , she has manners and there’s no way she’d ever let a pretty girl get to a date all on her own. She had already planned the scene in her head: Sooyoung would pick Jungeun up with her older sister’s car that she totally did _not_ ask permission to use, she was even thinking of buying some flowers cause she’s just romantic like that. Then, she would ring the doorbell to Jungeun’s house– she refuses to be the type that just sends an ‘i’m outside!” text. And, finally, if it all went according to plan, Jungeun would open the door and instantly swoon over how charming Sooyoung is….who wouldn’t, honestly.

A perfect start for a perfect night!

But….her plans were ruined. An amazing, detailed and flawless plan had to be thrown to the garbage just because Jungeun insisted she’d be much more comfortable if they just met in the restaurant. Sooyoung respected that, of course, but she made sure to express her immense disappointment when agreeing to it. Jungeun had giggled and called her reaction cute.

“Maybe some other time you can come pick me,” Jungeun had said. The mention of a next time instantly cheered Sooyoung up.

Sooyoung doesn’t have a plan now. She’s just gonna let the night flow naturally and just do whatever feels right at the moment. She feels very confident over that premise. Sooyoung knows that things just go well when she’s with Jungeun and nothing ever needs to be forced. They fit perfectly together, or whatever.

As she waits for Jungeun to arrive, a couple of waiters approach her, asking if she’s ready to order. With the biggest smile ever- she literally can’t control it, she tells them that she’s waiting for someone.

As the time of their meeting gets closer, Sooyoung’s hearts starts beating faster and faster, but only slightly. She’s totally in control of her emotions right now. Her shaking legs have nothing to do with the anticipation, she’s just cold.

She feels like she’s been waiting forever, it’s definitely been more than thirty minutes by now. She checks her phone and confirms that it’s ten minutes past eight, the agreed on time. She softly laughs to herself cause Jungeun didn’t seem like the type to be fashionably late or anything like that.

Then ten minutes turn into fifteen, and then twenty.

Thirty.

Okay...maybe Jungeun is just running late for whatever reason.

Sooyoung sighs as she looks towards the entrance of the store, feeling slightly disappointed to not find jungeun anywhere near it.

A couple more minutes go by and again, a waiter approaches her.

“Miss,” He says very politely, “Ready to order?”

Sooyoung forces a smile, “Ah. Mind coming back in a few minutes? She’ll be here soon...Traffic, you know.”

The man nods, he grimaces in a way that shows compassion for Sooyoung.

She scoffs cause this isn’t what it looks like and there’s no need to feel sorry for her. Jungeun will be here soon…

Sooyoung, more than upset, is worried. What if something bad happened to Jungeun? She decides that she’s waited long enough and that a text asking Jungeun where she is is well appropriate in this situation and has no reason to sound desperate at all.

Her head is down looking to the screen of her phone which steals all her concentration. For this reason, she completely misses someone approaching her table and only notices once they’re already seated right in front of her.

 _Finally!_ She thinks. Her date is finally here and she can’t wait to show that dumb waiter how wrong he was for thinking Ha Sooyoung would _ever_ get stood up.

She raises her eyes to meet Jungeun’s except she finds someone else…

“Jinsoul?!”

The blonde girl in front of her says nothing.

“What are you doing here?! When I told you about my date I didn’t do it so you could crash it!”

Jinsoul looks slightly uncomfortable, or is it worried?

She’s just sitting there, she grabs a lose napkin and starts fidgeting with it.

Sooyoung guesses Jinsoul is just here to spy on their date or some other dumb thing like that, she honestly doesn’t give whatever reason brought Jinsoul here much thought. She just wants her gone.

“Ugh, Jinsoul!” Sooyoung’s voice is louder this time, “Go away,” She drags that last word for longer than necessary, making it sound like a whine, “She’s gonna be here any time soon and found you here and-”

“Sooyoung,” Jinsoul sounds so serious that it’s unnerving.

Sooyoung’s breath hitches.

“Jungeun’s not coming.”


	4. answers with questions

Sooyoung has been unresponsive for over five minutes now and honestly, Jinsoul is starting to get worried for her friend.

She pokes her in the hand, trying to get a reaction. Sooyoung barely blinks in acknowledgment. 

Sooyoung has no idea what to do, how to think. She has known this was a _Thing_ for more than a decade now but it’s so much harder to process it when it affects her directly.

She shakes her head, still trying to grasp the concept. It makes no sense, not like this. Not to them.

Jinsoul’s words still ring in her head, feeling just as wrong every time. 

“ _Different dimensions_ ,” Jinsoul had said, “You guys are both in different dimensions.”

Sooyoung felt a drop in her stomach that felt like being thrown in an endless void. 

“Come again…” She had said, praying that she had heard Jinsoul wrong.

Jinsoul just looks at her, her face is all twisted with discomfort and her eyes filled with a pity that makes Sooyoung feel sick.

“It can’t be...that- how is that even possible?” Sooyoung’s voice is barely audible, a murmur almost.

Sooyoung has been aware of the multi-dimensional nature of the universe since she was a child; that’s not the surprising or upsetting part at all.

She had first learned about it when she was nine. She was hanging out at Jinsoul’s house when her friend entered her bathroom and then disappeared for over an hour. Sooyoung was too shy to leave Jinsoul’s room or do anything about it, so she just sat in bed and waited for her friend to return. 

To her surprise Jinsoul comes back to the room through her bedroom’s main door instead of the bathroom one, which still remains very locked.

Sooyoung demands an explanation and that’s when she learns that Jinsoul has the ability to travel through dimensions. Jinsoul, herself, is very new to that whole multiverse part of her life so she had yet to master the ability. As a consequence she would accidentally end up trespassing dimensions while doing the most trivial things ever.

“So yeah,” A young Jinsoul had explained to a just as young Sooyoung, “I was just flushing the toilet and then boom! I appeared on a whole other world!”

She still sounded shaken up by the situation and even talked in a rushed manner that is very uncharacteristic of hers.

Sooyoung’s only response to the the entire thing had been a very excited “Cool!”

She immediately accepted it as a truth. To a nine year old even the craziest of things sound completely possible and like nothing but the truth. So, without any doubts at all, she fully believed her best friend. 

She _still_ believes he best friend. 

Growing up did nothing to weaken her belief on Jinsoul’s abilities. If anything it made her more curious. She’d always ask questions about the other worlds and what it was like over there. It was fascinating to her. She’s always loved hearing Jinsoul talk about it.

But now...not so much. Right now she hates it.

Sooyoung hears Jinsoul clear her throat dramatically loud across the table and is brought back to the conversation. She knows that Jinsoul had done a lot of talking, probably explaining the situation with more detail, but she had tuned everything out.

Slightly embarrassed she asks Jinsoul to repeat herself. The girl does so with no complaints.

Jinsoul takes a deep sigh before once again giving an explanation that is probably way too confusing to clear anything out, “Okay so do you remember Jungeun’s friend, Yerim?”

Sooyoung nods.

“And do you remember my reaction when we saw her that time at the store?”

A second nod.

“Well, that was because I had met before...in a different dimension. A dimension to which Jungeun happens to also belong to. I ended up there a few months ago.”

Sooyoung frowns, still pretty confused and with even more questions than when they started.

Jinsoul speaks again before Sooyoung has the chance to ask anything, “I freaked out because I didn’t understand how Yerim could be there, in _our_ world. How she could interact with you, how you had met Jungeun even though she belongs to a completely different world that, under normal circumstance, should never even be aware of the existence of ours. But that’s when I realized...they aren’t technically in our world. We aren’t in theirs, either...and that’s why we can interact with them…”

Jinsoul looks like she just made a point. A point that Sooyoung completely missed.

“Huh?” Sooyoung says, her head is literally going to break in two any minute now.

“It’s obvious! I had heard this theory before but had never actually encountered it myself.”

Sooyoung makes an exasperated noise and Jinsoul hurries to continue talking, “Don’t you get it yet?! Jungeun and Yerim exist in a liminal space.”

Sooyoung blinks in confusion. Huge confusion. What is Jinsoul trying to say, what do those words even mean put together like that, “A linear _what_?”

“A liminal space!” Jinsoul corrects her, “A whole part of the universe that exist with no purpose, almost by mistake. It’s like an unfinished dimension stuck between two. A grand, universal glitch, some may say. A limbo. A passage between universes. It’s there but yet it isn’t…”

Jinsoul keeps finding different words to express the same idea and Sooyoung is starting to grasp it, kinda, but there’s still something that doesn’t make sense...

“But how was I with her? Why can't she be _here_ now?”

“Ah,” Jinsoul says, “That’s a great question that I um- still have to figure out…It’s almost like certain places hold some special energy that manages to merge both universes into one. Like a portal? I don’t know, yet. I don’t know what bonded our two worlds together. Some form of strange force, maybe.”

Sooyoung hums, trying to make sense out of the situation. She just blinks in silence as she takes it all in. Her head is literally about to collapse from overloading and she feels a headache forming at the back of it.

She rests her elbows on the table and starts massaging her temples. She honestly feels defeated.

Sooyoung is self aware of the fact that she met Junguen only recently and that this...thing is hitting her way harder than it should. She feels robbed of the opportunity to get to know the girl better, like she just lost a future with Jungeun that wasn’t even hers yet. It’s a heavy feeling in her chest of losing something that she had been unawarely waiting for her whole life. 

Jinsoul seems to know exactly what Sooyoung is feeling cause she doesn’t say anything to try to somehow downplay the situation. She had seen how infatuated Sooyoung was with Junguen. How she’d talk about the girl and sound hopeful about what their relationship could turn into. And now she sees how Sooyoung’s heart is breaking right in front of her, and the worst part is that she never even got the chance to hand it to Jungeun...and now she never will.

It’s so rare to see Sooyoung speechless. It sucks.

Jinsoul is about to open her mouth, try to say anything to console the inconsolable, but is interrupted by the vibrating phone in her pocket.

She gasps before even checking who’s calling and quickly answers.

Sooyoung eyes her curiously.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m on my way!” She sputters to the phone and hangs up right after.

Sooyoung arches her eyebrows questioningly.

Jinsoul shifts uncomfortably, “Um, so I hate to leave you like this but I completely forgot to pick up my sister from Chaewon’s house so I need to run there now.”

Sooyoung shrugs and nods lightly, “It’s fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Ugh,” Jinsoul pouts, “But I do worry!”

Sooyoung gives her the weakest smile possible, “It’s okay, I need alone time to...process this, anyway.”

Jinsouls hums, hating to accept what her friend is saying but having no other option.

“Fine,” She reaches to give Sooyoung a very much needed kiss on the cheek, “I’ll call you tomorrow...just, take care, okay?”

Sooyoung has glossy eyes and her throat feels like it’s closing in on her but she manages to let out an okay. 

She sighs.

Just as Jinsoul is turning away from the table Sooyoung shouts out one last thing.

“Hey! Say hi to Jinnie for me, will you?”

Jinsoul gives her a thumbs up and runs to get her sister.

* * *

 Junguen wakes up feeling like utter shit the next morning. She had barely gotten any sleep last night, tossing and turning for hours and suffocating on her wet pillow from the dumb tears she had spilled. As if that isn’t enough she felt -and still does, a dark hole where her heart should be. 

This isn’t her first disappointment in romance but God, it is the far worst.

Jungeun had waited for Sooyoung for hours. She lost count of how long she waited for, or more like...she pretended not to know cause it was honestly pathetic.

Maybe Sooyoung had an emergency, or something happened on her way to the restaurant. Maybe she got sick and lost her phone so couldn’t tell Jungeun. Maybe this was Jungeun’s fault cause she got the date wrong, or probably it’s the wrong place. It must definitely be the wrong place. She checked the time they’d agreed on at least ten times. 

Through most of the night Jungeun distracted herself by keeping in mind that she is a journalist and used that to think in a critical and unbiased way. She made up hundredths of theories as to why Sooyoung wouldn’t show up. 

Being stood up is the worst one and she didn’t spend too much time on it.

Sooyoung wouldn’t do that...would she?

She had tried texting the girl but her messages didn’t go through. After more time passed Junguen tried her luck with calling a few times but it wouldn’t even connect.

Jungeun kept receiving texts from other people so it’s definitely not her phone.

Is Sooyoung purposely doing this…..?

After all that, she ended up giving up and returning home with a disappointment that couldn’t fit in her body. It still can’t.

When she goes to bed it got harder to keep thoughts like Sooyoung regretting this and deciding to ditch her out of her mind. She finally allows herself to cry and dwell on that heart-break.

That stupid heartbreak only intensifies when she notices there are no texts or missed calls from Sooyoung the next morning. Maybe it was dumb but she was hoping that the other girl would contact her over the night.

Jungeun doesn’t leave her bed till eleven in the morning. She only does so because she finally tells her friend what happened last night and Vivi tells Jungeun that she’s coming over whether she likes it or not, “I don’t care what you think, you _need_ our support!”

Haseul had hummed in agreement. Jungeun ended up successfully stopping her friends from coming over only because she agreed on going to Vivi’s house instead. That way she can just leave whenever she feels like it instead of having to go through the trouble of kicking them out when she gets tired.

Jungeun is able to avoid talking about her failed date with Sooyoung for a couple of hours. She only gives a brief explanation and her friends get the message of how she’d rather not get into detail. The afternoon goes fairly peaceful at first, that is until Heejin, Hyunjin and  Yerim all show up announced at Vivi’s door. They join the group’s hang out and any peace there was ceases to exist. They’re _loud_. Jungeun is sure that they’re the number one factor contributing into the country’s noise pollution.

As much as Jungeun would like to get annoyed at them, she can’t. They actually manage to completely distract her from thinking about last night and going further into her sadness. Haseul and Vivi had only apported with support which was very much appreciated, but they hadn’t exactly helped her with not thinking about it.

But now, with her attention fully devoted into seeing Heejin and Hyunjin bicker back and forth the whole afternoon, she finally forgets about Sooyoung for a while. It doesn’t last more than a few hours cause when Heejin asks if there’s been any advancement with the investigation on Yeojin’s case, Jungeun is reminded that there’s absolutely none and that is because her attention has been somewhere else...in someone else.

She realizes it’s been hours since she checked her phone and so when she notices that a couple of texts from Sooyoung have been waited to be opened for almost over an hour a dumb smile escapes her lips. She honestly feels like a fool for it. 

Her entire mood falters when she sees the very...dry texts Sooyoung had sent.

_“hi. had a thing last night. sorry”_

She stares at the words for a couple of minutes. It stings. She has no idea how to reply so she just stares at her phone like an idiot.

Haseul seems to be the first one to notice and nudges Vivi to send a signal. The rest are quick to catch on and within seconds Vivi manages to snatch Jungeun’s phone away from her hands. Hyunjin and Heejin launch themselves towards Jungeun to hold her down and stop her from going after Vivi. Haseul and Yerim are screaming about how this is the best for her and that she needs to trust their methods. 

Haseul then goes into a rant about looking after one’s own dignity and knowing who to waste energy on, “Sooyoung, for example, and i’m sorry to say it, is someone not worth wasting your time on.”

Jungeun scrunches her face cause she couldn’t disagree more. Yes, she’s hurt and slightly mad about what's been going on for the last few hours, but Sooyoung is not a bad girl. Or at least that’s what Jungeun thinks. She barely knows her, but it feels like it’s been longer. A part of her still wants to give Sooyoung a chance.

All her friends attack her when she says that out loud.

Maybe they’re right and maybe Sooyoung sounds like bad news but that thought makes Jungeun feel sick. Like, literally physically ill. And she hates it. And maybe not ending things with her right now will hurt more in the end, but she’s not ready to give up on Sooyoung just yet.

It’s not until the night, when Jungeun is alone back in her house, that she’s finally able to reply to Sooyoung’s texts. She decides to just ask if the girl is okay. 

Jungeun sighs when she notices that, once again, the message is not able to get through.

She can’t help but think that Sooyoung really is trying to avoid her.

Jungeun shoves her phone into a drawer and doesn’t stare at it for the rest of the night.

Everything feels so wrong.

* * *

Sooyoung stares dumbfoundedly at her own text. If someone asked her why she had talked to Jungeun in that cold manner, she probably wouldn’t be able to give a proper response. She’s just been in a weird mood since last night, after Jinsoul told her everything, and honestly? She’s too upset to even care. Jungeun probably hates her already for thinking that she stood her up.

Sooyoung considered coming up with some excuse for not showing up last night but what’s the point in that. It’s not like they could try again or have a future together, so why bother.

She thought about telling Junguen the actual truth too but there’s no way Jungeun would ever believe it or not think that Sooyoung has gone completely insane. How do you even tell someone something like that?! Sooyoung ends up deciding that telling her everything would only do more damage than good. Just let Jungeun think that she’s being ghosted, don’t let her get so invested...yeah, that should be better.

There’s a fear at the back of Sooyoung’s mind about Jungeun already being too invested. What if she feels the same as Sooyoung? Sooyoung would rather not consider that because the idea of both feeling the exact same thing and yet not being able to be together hurts a hundred times more…

She ignores that thought as much as she can.

Sooyoung notices that her message was opened but got no reply. 

Jungeun’s profile picture shows up as unavailable. Did she…it can’t be. She wouldn't.

Sooyoung confirms her suspicions when she tries to text Jungeun but the message doesn’t send. She then tries calling and it doesn’t even connect.

“She blocked me…” Sooyoung sighs out to herself.

As upset as she feels about that, it’s honestly for the best.

They need to forget about each other.

* * *

Jungeun hasn’t heard from Sooyoung in a week. No texts, no calls, no running into her anywhere. It’s fine, really. Jungeun would rather keep things this way. Seeing her would only make everything harder to forget. Not like she’s already having a hard time forgetting the girl, or anything. She doesn’t think about how unfair it is that she got no closure at all, that Sooyoung didn’t even have the decency to properly reject her. Nope, it’s not a thought that’s constantly stabbing her right in the heart. Not at all.

She tries to convince herself that at least Sooyoung got bored rather quickly from playing with her, instead of toying her for months. It’s a false consolation that never lasts enough. 

She goes to the dance studio daily, sometimes multiple times in one day. Each time she has a dumb desire of hopefully running into Sooyoung. She never does. She has no idea of what she would say, or if she would say anything at all. Jungeun doesn’t even know why she wants to see the girl so desperately even after being stood up and ghosted for days, she just does.

She even asks around to see if anyone’s seen her. No one even knows who Sooyoung is. Jungeun wonders if Sooyoung had left the academy. There’s no way she’d go that far to avoid Junguen, right? Jungeun isn’t that important…

There’s this one time in which Jungeun falls asleep reading past conversations with Sooyoung- yeah, that’s pathetic but who cares! She’s fully embraced that, just as she’s embraced the fact that she really misses the older girl, and not even from a romantic standpoint but just...in general. Jungeun would take being Sooyoung’s friend over being Sooyoung’s nothing any day.

That night Jungeun had a weird dream that is not weird at all. It’s actually way too realistic to feel like just some other dream and that’s what’s so off-putting about it. It’s as realistic as a memory, maybe even more cause it felt vivid and detailed in a way that memories don’t.

It even had that nostalgic factor of missing something that once was. Missing someone. More specifically, Sooyoung; cause she was in it, but not really. It looked like Sooyoung, but it wasn't her. Jungeun called her another name, a foreign name. Was it Yves, maybe? Yeah...she was called Yves in that dream.

There was some other girl too, Jungeun never heard her name but in this...dream, that person was her best friend. It was a really short and cute, cheery girl. Even more so than Yerim, which she never thought possible.

Jungeun is the type of person that forgets her dreams seconds after waking up, but this one stays with her for a long time. She doesn’t forget a single thing about it. She thinks about it so much that she starts having even more dreams such as that one. It’s always those two people with her. Yves and, that other girl.

There are nights in which the names change. It’s the same people, but the scenario isn’t. The basics never vary, though. It’s always Junguen and her girlfriend Sooyoung hanging out with their best-friend.

She hates those dreams, cause not only is she haunted by Sooyoung every single night, but they make her miss people that she’s never met, and long for situations that have never happened.

She tells Haseul about it and the girl just tells her that she’s romantically frustrated because of what went down with Sooyoung. Jungeun accepts that as the truth as it makes more sense than any of the theories said by Yerim, who talks about past memories and different lives. Jungeun ignores her cause Yerim never knows what she’s saying.

Coincidentally enough, Jungeun is not the only one dealing with weird dreams. 

Yerim is too.

Dreams involving Yeojin; dreams that she thought had been left in the past.

Every night she goes to bed and sees Yeojin suffer through something horrible. Something that she’d rather not mention to anyone, not even think to herself. She started having those dreams around October of last year. Just as they are doing now, they would flood her sleep every night with horrible imagery of her best friend struggling to survive, and lastly..failing to do so.

She stopped having them after Yeojin’s disappearance. 

Back then, she was convinced that they were some sort of augury hinting to Yeojin’s future. That possibility made her sick.

But now, she can’t understand what they mean. Why she’s having them. Maybe it’s cause of Jungeun coming into her life and making her remember Yeojin and her disappearance daily. Maybe it was seeing the crime scene of where Yeojin last was.

Whatever it is, she needs it to go away right now. She never imagined having to deal with this again, especially not after doing what she did when they first started to happen. Had that all being in vain? She really hopes not…

She doesn’t tell anyone about them. Not this time around. She did last October, though. This second time around she keeps it all to herself and silently prays for them to stop.

They don’t.

* * *

Sooyoung is resting her head on the lap of Jiwoo. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, letting the fresh air fill her lungs completely. Jiwoo had convinced her that she needed to free her mind and relax a little, obviously the only way to achieve that is by having a picnic out in the sun, “You need to feel the heat hitting your face!” Jiwoo had said in an attempt to force Sooyoung out of her house for the first time in days, “You need to feel alive!”

Sooyoung had only agreed to make her stop screaming into her ear.

Sooyoung is almost dozing off when she’s interrupted by Jiwoo’s high pitched voice, “See!” She screams, “Isn’t this _soooo_ much better than being locked in your room being a whimpering mess.”

Sooyoung tries to give her a mean look but is blinded by the sun, “Ugh, I’d rather have my heartbreak in the peace of my own house, to be honest.”

Jiwoo shakes her head, disapprovingly, “Okay now, that’s totally not healthy. It’s been twp weeks already! You need to put your mind somewhere else.”

Sooyoung only pouts in response. Twoo weeks is too short of a time to get over a girl she barely knew. She’s gonna need more time.

“So this girl,” Jiwoo, once again, interrupts the silence, “What was her name again?”

“Jungeun.”

“Kim Jungeun?” Jiwoo says unpromptedly.

Sooyoung lifts  her head from Jiwoo’s lap to look at her properly, “Yeah, how- how did you know?”

Jiwoo’s face twists in confusion, “Uh, I don’t know, the name just popped in my head.”

Sooyoung eyes her weirdly, but shrugs it off. She had probably told the girl before.

“Anyway,” Jiwoo starts again, “Is there really no hope for you too..?”

Sooyoung stares long to see if the girl is joking, or not. She seems to be completely serious.

“I- We’re stuck in different dimensions, Jiwoo!” Sooyoung shoots back.

Jiwoo winces at the tone, “But you guys can still see each other, and text each other and all that! It wouldn’t even be _that_ different from a long distance relationship, no?”

Sooyoung looks scandalized.

Jiwoo nudges her friend,  “...Lesbians love long distance relationships…”

Sooyoung blinks. She literally refuses to partake in this conversation. 

“No?”

Still no reply for Jiwoo.

She finally gives up, “Ugh, okay I get it. I’ll take that as a no.”

Sooyoung gives her a sarcastic smile and goes back to her original position, laying on the shortest girl’s leg. 

* * *

Sooyoung is woken up from her nap on Jiwoo’s leg by something crashing into her body, more specifically someone launching themselves on top of her full force to give her a hug. Once Sooyoung notices who it is, she decides to be dramatic and pretend that the air has been knocked out her.

She makes a struggling noise for a few seconds, “I can’t breathe,” She says through desperate panting. Clearly her attacker is not buying it, cause all they do is laugh.

Sooyoung notices that and gives up her act, slightly hitting the shoulder of the tiny girl now resting on top of her, “Jinnie, you’re seriously gonna kill me one of these days.”

“That’s the goal!” She replies.

Sooyoung doesn’t think twice before she violently shoves the girl off of her. She just gets a  giggle in return.

“You’ve been trying for four years already, and I’m still here. You might want to change strategies.”

The girl gives the best possible comeback there is: She sticks her tongue out.

As the banter between those two continue, they notice Jinsoul running towards them, clearly out of breath. No one can fully understand what she’s saying once she reaches them, but she’s blabbering something about her sister being too fast for her and getting too far ahead of her. She then takes Sooyoung’s previous spot on Jiwoo’s legs and lays there trying to get her heartbeat and breathing back to their normal pace.

Jinsoul’s sister says nothing to her defense and just laughs at the idea of Jinsoul struggling to keep up with her.

“She insisted on coming to see you, Sooyoung,” Says Jinsoul about her sister, unlike moments ago, she speaks calmly now, “She heard that you were feeling...down,” She mutters that last word, unsure if she should mention it or not.

Sooyoung lowers her gaze to the floor, her voice lower than before as she says a thank you.

The small girl shrugs, “Heartbreaks suck, especially when dealing with them alone.”

A smile creeps onto Sooyoung’s face over seeing the care that the smaller girl is showing. She is honestly like a younger sister for Sooyoung. Even though Sooyoung only met her four years ago, she feels as if she’s seen the girl grow up her entire life. She literally forgets how life was before meeting her. The concept of Jinsoul as anything other than an older sister just sounds so distant to her.

Sooyoung has known Jinsoul for more than a decade already, but had only met her sister a few years ago. It seemed so weird that in eight years of friendship with Jinsoul she had never even heard of a younger sister. It was as if she had appeared out of thin air. Jinsoul kept telling Sooyoung that she had totally mentioned it before but Sooyoung had just forgotten.  

Now, though, life without the younger Jung sibling is what wouldn’t make sense. The girl belongs next to them, even though she is significantly younger than everyone in the group. They’ve all accepted her as their child.

Sooyoung hears her groan, “It’s honestly not fair that you’ve finally found someone you really like, but have to give up on her!”

Jiwoo shoots the speaking girl a look, telling her to stop talking before she gets Sooyoung upset again.

Sooyoung, however, only gives a heavy sigh and agrees with her.

Jiwoo’s unspoken warning seems to go unnoticed, “You guys made such a lovely couple. She was perfect for you.”

The three older girls have the same, confused reaction at those words.

“You knew her?” Asks Jinsoul.

“Jungeun? Yeak, kinda…” Her words sound hesitant.

Jiwoo looks apprehensively at Jinsoul, and then back at her sister, “How?” 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sooyoung says at the same time.

The girl frowns, “I just...know her from what Sooyoung hast told us about her…”

Everyone’s curiosity deflates immediately. They get distracted talking about something else and miss the _“I think”_ that she mutters to herself. She feels as if there’s something more. 

Something she’s forgetting.

She’s right.

She gets snapped out of her thoughts by the voice of her older sister addressing her, “Hello!?” Jinsoul snaps her fingers right in front of her face, “Earth to Jung Yeojin, anyone there?”

Yeojin shakes her head and snaps out of it.

“Thinking about anything there?” Asks Sooyoung.

“No,” Yeojin says, “Nothing.”

* * *

Jiwoo and Yeojin leave together to the bathroom. Leaving Sooyoung and Jinsoul alone for the first time that day.

Jinsoul hears Sooyoung sigh loudly and turns to her, "What's wrong?"

"She's gone, isn't she?"

Jinsoul furrows her eyebrows questioningly. 

"Jungeun," Sooyoung mumbles, "I haven't ran into her in weeks, and it's impossible to contact her. She's gone."

"Oh," Jinsoul says, looking down, "Yeah, it seems like it. Whatever allowed both worlds to cross over is gone now."

Sooyoung nods. She knew that already, she could feel it.

Jungeun's gone.

* * *

Jungeun grunts as she walks the streets alone with no company other than an incredibly heavy rain. 

It’s been pouring down the entire day. She hates leaving the house when the weather is like this, even more when she needs to walk somewhere.

Worst part is that this trip of hers had been completely useless. After almost three weeks of moping around over her failed romantic life. Jungeun finally forced her way back to work. Her motivation to keep her mind busy helped her move fast and quickly manage to get in contact with some of Yeojin’s classmates. Most of them wouldn’t even write her back, though. The few that did, agreed on giving Jungeun their address but refused to talk once she actually got to their houses and asked some questions. The most she had gotten was a ‘yeah, i think I remember her…”

She genuinely doesn’t understand why no one wants to talk about Yeojin. Or why some of them seemed so genuine when reassuring that they don’t even remember her at _all_.

It all gives her a huge, annoying headache.

Jungeun is too busy mentally cursing everyone and everything involved in this case to notice the dark, tall figure that stands not that far away from her. At least that’s what she thinks cause she only notices it once it's too late. 

She panics for a few seconds cause _what the hell is that_ , but then feels silly cause she realizes it’s just some girl, completely soaked by the rain, face all hidden by her dark hair, standing in the middle of the road with no umbrella…and okay, yes, maybe it could be seen as a little bit creepy but, honestly? Jungeun would take some scary looking girl any day over whatever else it is that you could find in this town. 

Jungeun speeds up her step and approaches the girl, offering some shelter under her umbrella.

“Hey!" Junguen practically needs to shout to be heard, “Need any help?”

The stranger turns to her and softly nods. She doesn’t look that scary close up; she actually doesn’t look scary at all.

The girl scoots over and stands next to Jungeun, “Thank you!” She screams, “The rain caught me unprepared.”

The stranger stares down at Jungeun and purses her lips, “Do I know you from somewhere?” The girl’s voice is barely audible this time.

“Uh,” Jungeun leans forward, to get a better look at the girl, there’s nothing familiar about it, “I don’t think so.”

Jungeun extends her hand out for the girl to take, “I’m Jungeun.”

The girl looks at Jungeun with an unreadable expression, “Junguen.” She repeats. She takes Jungeun’s hands in hers and squeezes it back, “I’m Hyejoo.”

Jungeun nods and as she’s about to ask Hyejoo where she’s heading to and if she'd like walking together, the phone of the taller girl starts ringing. She answers immediately.

“Hey,  yeah. I’m on my way,” She starts, “But the rain is making me- huh? I’m literally soaked, what do you mean it’s not raining?”

They’re standing so close to each other that Jungeun can feel the breath of the other girl on her shoulder. She tries to back off as much as possible and half of her body gets wet because of it. 

Jungeun looks down to her feet, trying to give the stranger as much privacy as she can. She taps her foot in the water that’s already pooling in the ground. 

“Yeah, okay,” She hears Hyejoo say, “See you soon.”

Jungeun keeps her eyes on the ground and waits for the stranger to hang up and once again address her. But then...she doesn’t.

Jungeun is unsure of in what moment Hyejoo’s feet stopped standing right in front of hers. She looks back up and only finds an empty space where Hyejoo was standing only some few seconds ago.

She tries to look around but it’s too dark to notice anything that’s farther than a meter away.

“Hyejoo?” Jungeun calls out into the emptiness.

Nothing.

Jungeun shrugs. It’s not the first time something disappears right in front of her eyes.

* * *

“Is this all?” Asks the cashier, referring to Sooyoung’s lonesome water bottle.

“Not yet,” Sooyoung says calmly, signaling to her friend in the back who’s still choosing what to buy. There’s no rush, knowing that they’re the only ones in the convenience store (as always) and there’s no line to hold.

Just as that thought finishes forming she hears the little bell from the door. _Great_. She slowly closes her eyes and shouts for the girl in the back to hurry up but it’s probably pointless cause she’s stupidly picky and always takes more than humanly possible to choose a snack.

She feels the person on her back. Ready to pay.

Sooyoung rolls her eyes but mostly at herself cause she’s more than sure that she jinxed herself. She turns around and politely starts speaking to the person behind her.

“Hey,” She stars, “You go ahead I’m still waiting for- wh-”

Her words get caught up in her throat cause holy shit she knows this person and what the fuck it’s _Jungeun_. Jungeun is standing right behind her, looking as pretty as ever and just as surprised as Sooyoung is feeling.

She shakes her head. She’s probably just imagining things. 

Jungeun’s still there.

She rubs her eyes. She’s probably seeing things that aren’t real.

Jungeun’s still there.

She pinches herself. She’s probably just dreaming.

Jungeun’s still there.

_She’s real...and she’s here. She’s actually here._

“You’re here…” Sooyoung grabs Jungeun’s face in between her hands, “How. You’re really here.”

Jungeun frowns, and frees her face from Sooyoung’s soft grip, “What’s your problem?”

Sooyoung’s mouth is agape and her eyes hold something that Jungeun can’t understand. 

She says nothing for a while and just stares, her silence makes Jungeun frustrated. 

Jungeun crosses her arms, defensively, “If anything, I should be the one acting shocked at this encounter.” She lifts and accusatory finger and pokes Sooyoung in the chest with it, “ _You_ are the one that’s been ignoring me, after all.”

Sooyoung shakes her head, her expression going incredibly soft, she barely manages to let a “No, I-” Before Jungeun interrupts her mid-sentence.

“You know what, Sooyoung. I don’t wanna hear it,” She says sharply.

Jungeun stars walking towards the door quickly, not giving Sooyoung a moment to react. Right before she’s about to step out of the door she turns around and looks at Sooyoung dead in the eye, “Have a nice life, Sooyoung.”

Jungeun doesn’t move after that. She seems hesitant for a split of a second. Almost as if her feet got stuck to the ground, struggling to walk away.

There’s screaming in the back, and Jungeun’s attention gets stolen from Sooyoung for a moment. 

“Sooyoung, I’ve decided what I want!” A small girl emerges from behind a shelf, holding a couple of snacks in both hands. She looks awfully familiar.

Jungeun’s eyes widen dramatically at seeing the girl. Her complexion becomes drastically pale.

It’s Yeojin.

* * *

Jungeun is stunned.

She stares at the girl now in front of her in utter bewilderment. She can’t say anything, can’t even _think_ anything.

She walks closer to Yeojin, taking hesitant steps. Jungeun’s tempted to reach out, but she doesn’t. She inspects the girl who looks almost identical as Junguen remembers. It’s her. It’s definitely Yeojin. There’s no way it is anyone else. As unrealistic as it was, Junguen had never given up on actually finding Yeojin. All this time, there had in been in her, some sort of gut feeling that there was more to discover but she never imagined anything like this- let alone in this way.

Yeojin stares back at her with a rather neutral expression. She seems more confused than anything else.

“Yeojin?” Junguen’s voice comes out in an almost whisper.  She doesn’t dare to speak any louder than that. 

Though Yeojin seems lost in the situation, there’s curiosity in Yeojin’s eyes, and a flash of something that Jungeun can’t read. Yeojin looks  at Sooyoung, trying to get an explanation.

Sooyoung shrugs, just as confused, and approaches the pair, “You guys know each other?”

None of them reply. Yeojin barely manages to shake her head in denial. Because she doesn’t. She doesn't know that girl, she’s sure of that. But she feels as if she might...as if she should.

“Uh. Okay…” Sooyoung now stands next to Yeojin and rests her arm in the shoulders of the smaller girl, “Jungeun, this is-”

“You see her too?” Jungeun interrupts frantically, finally breaking the eye contact with Yeojin and directing it to Sooyoung.

Both, Sooyoung and Yeojin frown at that.

Sooyoung laughs. It’s a nervous laughter that Jungeun is not familiar with.

“Of course I see her, why would I not see her…”

“What’s wrong with her?” Whispers Yeojin into Sooyoung’s ears. Sooyoung would like to know, too.

Jungeun inspects the two other two girls. Is this her going insane? Has she finally lost her mind? She more than surely looks the part. From the way Yeojin and Sooyoung are staring back, she knows that the look on her face is manic. 

There’s not a single thing that she understands about this situation and she doesn’t even know where to begin asking. How to react.

“Jungeun…” Starts Sooyoung once again, slower this time, “This is Yeojin. Jinsoul’s sister.”

Well that’s...wrong and not true at all, Jungeun can’t say anything, though. She only listens, stunned.

“And Yeojin,” Sooyoung continues, turning to Yeojin, “This is Jungeun, my- uh. Junguen. Just Junguen.”

Realization hits Yeojin’s face. Jungeun wishes she could relate cause she’s still pretty lost right now.

“Oh! So, _you’re_ Junguen,” Says Yeojin and Jungeun freaks out cause that’s totally Yeojin’s voice. The girl had a very particular voice and even if someone, in some weird and huge coincidence, managed to look exactly the same and even have the same freaking name, there’s no way- _no way_ , that they’d ever sound the same.

That’s definitely her Yeojin.

“You’re Junguen,” Yeojin repeats seemingly out of nowhere, in a weird tone, “I- I knew that already.”

“Oh!” Says Sooyoung with an excited voice that doesn’t match the atmosphere at all, “So you _do_ know her.”

“I don’t,” Says Yeojin.

Sooyoung finally loses her patience, “Okay, which one of you is gonna tell me what’s going on here?”

Jungeun stares. She doesn’t know either and, quite honestly, would also appreciate an explanation from these two.

“What-” She starts, but is unable to even come up with a question.

“How...wh-” Jungeun tries time and time again to word her thoughts but truth is, she doesn’t have any. She just has question, so many that she can’t even begin to understand what they are.

She takes a deep breath. And tries again, talking directly to Yeojin.

“Everyone thought you were dead…” 

 “Jungeun!” Sooyoung sounds almost terrorized, “What are you saying?”

“We have to- I have to tell someone,” Jungeun stumbles between words, “ I should call the police. Tell your family. I can’t just-”

“Call the police?!” Sooyoung’s eyes widen, “Why would you call the police?! What’s going on?!”

Jungeun already has her phone next to her ear. Sooyoung snatches it from her hands and cancels the call.

Jungeun is frantic. Sooyoung steps forward and in an attempt to calm her down, puts both her hands on Jungeun’s shoulders and slightly, just slightly, shakes her, “Junguen, talk to me.”

That seems to interrupt Jungeun’s panic. “Yeojin…” She says.

“What about her?”

Jungeun looks at Yeojin, or rather tries to, as the young girl is currently hiding behind Sooyoung.

“How is she here?”

Sooyoung arches her eyebrows, because that question makes no sense.

“She’s been missing since last year,” Jungeun whispers, “ _How is she here?_ ”

Silence. 

Sooyoung fails to react straight away.

“ _What?_ ” Is all she manages to say.

“Yeojin. Im Yeojin. I told you about her.”

“That’s-” Sooyoung clears her throat, “She’s Jung Yeojin.”

Jungeun shakes her head in disagreement, “No. She isn’t.”

Silence settles between the two. Silence sourced by confusion.

Yeojin is the one to break it, “We need to call Jinsoul.”


	5. november

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a special chapter, i guess. it's rather short but i felt as if it needed to be on its own! hopefully it paints the picture of the story clearer!!

_Yerim is alone._

_She always is these days._

_The dying sunlight makes the woods almost impossible to navigate- the dark erases any possibility of keeping track of where one is standing, but it also makes it beautiful. Yerim is sitting at a high point from where the infinite trees that cover the horizon can be seen. They silently move at the command of the wind. Almost as one. The passing breeze blows away all the secrets that they hide and keeps them in a place where no one will find them; in plain sight. Yerim gladly listens to them as the air blows her hair and caresses her face. It gives her goosebumps._

_The trees are all being washed by a vanishing light, and the pink- soon to be black sky, makes the place look almost magical._

_It probably Is._

_She likes it that way._

_She likes it because that means that in a matter of minutes no one’s gonna dare to enter the place._

_She has the forest all to herself._

_When the pinks become greys and she finally feels sheltered by the loneliness, Yerim breaks down crying._

_She cries because she’s scared. Because she’s confused. Because she doesn’t know what else to do._

_The tears cover her face, but nothing covers those images in her head. She’s always seeing them now. Like a constant loop playing at the back of her mind._

_What came to her in a dream, now tortures her like a nightmare._

_It’s Yeojin. It’s always Yeojin._

_And she can never do anything._

_Every time Yerim closes her eyes, she has to watch her best friend meet an ill fate over and over again and the worst part is that that’s all she can do. Watch._

_Yerim doesn’t know how to make them stop. Should she make them stop? What do they mean?  Are they some sort of prophecy? Or just a sick play of Yerim’s imagination?_

_She hopes it’s the latter. She doesn’t feel too confident, though._

* * *

 

_There’s snow in her visions. There’s always snow._

_When November starts, Yerim knows she’s running out of time._

* * *

 

_It’s been two days since her time’s started ticking._

_Yerim finds herself immersed in crying, once again, feeling hopeless._

_Feeling lost._

_Alone._

_Except, she’s not. Not literally, at least._

_She hears a crack from somewhere around her. The snap of a tree branch. Yerim gets no time to speculate what caused the noise because she is immediately met with the view of a girl walking towards her._

_A girl that sees her crying and asks her what's wrong._

_A girl that seems worried for Yerim, and genuinely so._

_A girl that Yerim tells everything to because why not. She tells her everything about the visions she’s been having. And how they make her feel. How she can’t deal with them anymore. And how useless she feels for that._

_The girl understands. More than anyone ever should. More than Yerim herself._

_That girl keeps her company for the rest of the day._

* * *

 

_The girl keeps her company every day after that._

_Sometimes they walk through the forest, and talk about nothing._

_Other times they just sit in one spot, and talk about everything._

_Those are the days in which Yerim tells her about her many visions. About how they’re never wrong. About how scary that is. About how the forest is so special to her. How it’s always felt like an extraordinary place; just like she is._

_The girl does the same to Yerim. They share secrets to pass the time._

* * *

 

_“Hey,” Says the girl almost three weeks into meeting, “Those visions, I can help you with them.”_

_“Can you?”_

_“Well I know about something you could do to avoid that fate.”_

_“What is it?”_

_“You’d have to stop your friend from meeting any fate…at all. In this place, at least.”_

_Yerim simply tilts her head, curiously._

_“I can help her cross over,” The girl explains, “She’ll be safer somewhere else.”_

_It’s either that or do nothing at this point._

_Yerim loses Yeojin in both options._

_But at least the second one keeps her safe._

* * *

 

_Yerim takes a few days to think it over. A few days that make the end of November get closer._

_She’s pushing her luck with the time, and she knows it._

_A week passes and Yerim makes her decision._

* * *

 

_The snow comes as Yerim’s visions about Yeojin go._

_They stop after that._

_They take something else with it-_ **_someone_ ** _else._

_But she’s safe now, so it’s okay. It’s fine._

_The girl was right, her idea worked._

_Jinsoul's idea worked._


	6. two magnets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! the story is approaching it's end and i'm almost positive next chapter will be the last, so i hope it manages to end accordingly to everyones expectations. but for now, enjoy this chapter!

Junguen, Haseul, Vivi and Heejin are all sitting down in the first table available as soon as you enter the library.

Hyunjin is barely resting her weight on the edge of it. Yeirm seems even more restless. The girl’s been pacing back and forth since they got there.

Sooyoung had told them to meet at the library. That she’ll first go get Jinsoul and then head to meet them. She had insisted in this place, for whatever reason.

Jungeun's head was still spinning when they left. She immediately called all the girls, one by one, and told them what had happened.

She never thought she’d say the words, ‘I just saw Yeojin’, this early onto their investigation, but she does. And her voice becomes shakier the more she says it.

Naturally, everyone freaked out. But not the loud, freaking out that involves screaming and joyful cheers. Far from that, actually. Everyone reacted in a quiet, confused manner. So perplexed that words just seemed to stop existing. Jungeun gave them all as much detail as possible, which isn’t much, anyway.

She told them to meet now at the library. That they’ll meet with Yeojin, Jinsoul and Sooyoung, and probably get more answers.

No one questioned her about Sooyoung. Jungeun herself wasn’t even thinking about their... _situation_ right now.

Quite frankly, she couldn’t care less.

Yeojin was all in her mind right now.

“Would you stop pacing!” Screams Hyunjin at Yerim, clearly on edge, “It’s annoying!”

Yerim totally ignores her and barely offers a shrug in response. Heejin quietly comforts her girlfriend, taking her hand and whispering something in her ear.

Yerim and Hyunjin were closest to Yeojin, and the news clearly affected them the most. Both girls are in an unimaginable unrestful state.

The doors swing open and everyone turns their head towards that direction.

Jinsoul walks in alone, in a hurry.

“Hey,” She says.

“Where’s Yeojin?!” Hyunjin practically screams it as soon as she sees Jinsoul.

The blonde girl looks frenzy, as well, “She’s outside with Sooyoung.”

“Well bring her in…” Interrupts Yerim,  and quietly adds a ‘please’.

Jinsoul looks at her, and stays silent for a while. Yerim is avoiding her eyes.

“I will,” Starts again Jinsoul, “I just wanted to ask you guys to be careful with her. With what you say. She’s still shaken up from  her encounter with Jungeun.”

Jungeun stiffens at the memory.

Jinsoul ponders for a while. She’s visibly worried for Yeojin, “It could be too much, seeing everyone. She-”

Jinsoul gets cut off by the familiar sound of the doors opening with a loud bang.

Yeojin walks in with Sooyoung behind her, pulling her clothes, trying- and failing to stop her from going into the library.

“I’m tired of waiting,” Yeojin says, trying to free herself from Sooyoung’s grip, “Let go!”

Everyone falls silent as they watch the interaction. Everyone except Hyunjin, who runs towards the smaller girl.

Yerim follows her lead.

They both attack Yeojin with such a powerful hug that Yeojin loses her balance, almost falling backwards.

No one’s sure of when exactly Hyunjin and Yerim started crying. But their faces are soaked in tears, suddenly.

Yeojin doesn’t react. She just stands still, almost like a statue. She doesn’t hug back, she doesn’t push them off. She just stands there.

The hugging girls are talking but their words get muffled into the hug. Do they, themselves, even know what they’re saying?

Once the hug is over, they both look expectantly at Yeojin.

Yeojin stays quiet. The only action she does is lift her hand up to her own face. It’s wet. Is she crying? Why is she crying? A single tear covers one of her cheeks.

“Do I know you?” She asks, voice so soft that it’s barely inaudible.

Jinsoul runs to her sister, and grabs her by the hand. Pulling her away from the two girls that now stand frozen in place, shocked at Yeojin’s reaction- or better said, _lack_ of reaction.

“She doesn’t…” Yerim trails off.

Jinsoul looks almost apologetic at her, “She doesn’t remember anything.”

The look on Yerim’s face is haunting. Sad and nostalgic; lonely. Understanding.

Everyone moves to where Jinsoul is standing with Yeojin. The younger girls looks scared. Looking towards the floor, avoiding everyone’s stare and hiding in the embrace of her older sister.

Jinsoul, however, looks more calm. There’s something more in her, but she’s calm, regardless. Ready to talk.

“How?” Jungeun speaks for the first time. That’s all she manages to ask, but it’s all she needs to know.

Jinsoul blinks once.

Then twice, slower this time, as if she’s taking a moment to properly articulate her thoughts.

“Yeojin no longer belongs here.”

No one dares to speak. No one asks a single question, though everyone has thousands.

“She doesn’t belong in this…” Jinsoul stops herself and looks self-conscious, almost embarrassed, about what she’s gonna say next, “She doesn’t belong in this dimension anymore. Neither do I or Sooyoung, but we never did, in the first place.”

A beat passes.

No one says anything. Of course no one says anything.

Jungeun can’t even begin to understand how, but that makes sense. So much sense. It’s the most senseful thing she’s heard in years. It’s like a single piece that’s been missing for years finally got put into place and now everything works accordingly. 

From the way that no one questions Jinsoul’s words, Jungeun knows that they’re all thinking the same.

Yes. Yeojin had been sent to a different dimension.

* * *

 “But, how?” Haseul is the first one to speak again, “How did Yeojin end up there?”

Jinsoul looks at Yerim. A secretive look that says a lot. A look that’s a promise. A look that understands that answer is not for her to give.

Jinsoul shrugs, “She was just being protected.”

“Protected?”

Jinsoul nods, “If she stayed in this dimension...she- that wouldn’t have lasted much longer."

By the look on Yeojin’s face, it is safe to assume this is the first time she’s hearing this too.

“Protected by what?” Asks Jungeun.

“Let’s just say by a strong force.”

Her words sound definitive. It’s clear that she won’t say much more than that, as much as they ask. And ask they do, but Jinsoul keeps on giving the same answers with different words.

Everyone tries their luck at asking. Everyone fails- everyone but Yerim, who is uncharacteristically quiet as she looks at the scene unfold in front of her. She only speaks after all the girls have asked _at least_ three questions each.

“How did she end up with **you**?” Yerim’s question has an undertone that no one but Jinsoul  understand, “Why didn’t you tell me-” She shakes her head, and corrects herself. “Us. Why didn’t you tell us?"

Jinsoul sighs, “I didn’t know who she was. I first found her roaming around the forest. She couldn’t remember anything, other than the fact that she clearly didn’t belong in my world. It’s not the first time I offered help and shelter to someone stuck in the wrong dimension, that happens more than you would think. But it was the first time they had no memories of who they were before arriving…she stayed for so long that I just started introducing her as my sister, it was easier that way.”

Yerim shakes her head, “Still...you could have easily inferred who she was. You should've told me that-”

“I found Yeojin four years ago.”

Yerim squints at the reply. Confused.

“No,” Interrupts Jungeun, “She only went missing last November, that- that doesn’t make sense.”

“Yeah, well,” Jinsoul stars, "Neither does the idea of multiple dimensions, and travelling between them and portals that bring them together, but here we are...”

Junguen bites her lips. Jinsoul is right.

The talking girl grimaces at her harsh tone, but continues talking, “ _Nothing_ makes sense. Time doesn’t make sense. Especially when trying to compare it between two completely different universes. Do you know how much impact crossing over can cause?”

No one responds. Not even Sooyoung or Yeojin, who are more aware of the situation.

“The entire universe is bending for that to happen, time and space all stretch for that one moment. Sometimes it causes an effect, and other times it doesn’t. This time, it did. And majorly so. Yeojin crossed over into a world that was four years younger than what it should have been.”

Jinsoul is breathing heavily, now, from all that talking, and emotions currently traveling through her entire body.

Vivi clears her throat, “Can that…can it affect our memories?”

Jinsoul raises her eyebrow at the questions, not sure of what it means.

“Well I was starting to forget about who, uh, who Yeojin was. I’m sure that most of our town already have.”

Heejin seems to agree with Vivi, cause she nods along to her every word.

Jinsoul thinks deeply about an answer. She thinks about how her life before Yeojin has become practically impossible to remember. Was it ever there? She thinks about how Sooyoung never teases her for not mentioning Yeojin in all those years of friendship. Had she somewhat forgotten that part, too?

“Yeah,” She finally says, “Yeah, I guess it can also alter our memory.”

Jungeun’s eyes wander through the room. Everyone’s wearing a confused expression. Some have their mouths slightly opened, others got a frown and others got knitted eyebrows. Her eyes land on Sooyoung, finally. She’s staring right back at Jungeun and doesn’t hide it. She only looks away after a few seconds of intense eye contact that leave Jungeun feeling all types of way.

Only then it’s when realization hits Jungeun. Jungeun raises her hand to ask a question. Vivi mocks her for acting like a high schooler while Jinsoul almost sounds pissed when she tells her that there’s no need to do that, and to just ask the damn question.

“How are you here right now? In _our_ dimension, I mean.”

Jinsoul hesitates, but subtly enough to go unnoticed, “Well, certain places work as bridges between two worlds, somehow. The library being one, for example.”

“The dance academy being another one…”

“Mhm,” Nods Jinsoul, “I don’t know what bounds them together. It’s some sort of unbreakable attraction. Like magnets, almost.”

Jungeun is pensive for a while, she gets a thought she doesn’t like but pushes it aside.

“So,” Interferes Hyunjin, “Now what? Can Yeojin come back?”

Jinsoul grimaces, and looks down to the floor, “It’s complicated…” She starts playing with her hands. The atmosphere suddenly feels awkward.

“What do you mean it’s complicated?” Hyunjin speaks between teeth. It’s a little scary.

Jinsoul sighs for what seems like the hundredth time in the last hour, “Well, with Yeojin not only crossing over but staying for so many years in a dimension that’s not hers...I fear that the Yeojin that once was in her original dimension simply does not- she does not exist anymore.”

“But you-” Sooyoung speaks, voice tight, “You travel through them all the time and remain unaffected.”

“Well, yeah…because that’s my nature, I guess. I’ve been able to do so all my life, without even trying. Yeojin, though, she was never supposed to. She just-” Jinsoul struggles with the words, not wanting to say something she shouldn’t just yet.

“A bunch of circumstances aligned and that allowed her to do so. And like, even then, her memory was altered for it, clearly. The time as well. Hell, even her own dimension suffered side effects in their memory. I don’t think it’s smart to try, I don’t think it is even possible anymore. Whatever force allowed it the first time, just isn’t there anymore.”

“So Yeojin can’t-” Heejin starts, but her voice breaks a little, “She’s stuck in your dimension?”

Jinsoul nods, quietly.

“But her family,” Says Haseul, “Don’t they have the right to know? They think she’s…”

“There’s no need to,” Jinsoul’s voice sounds deeper than ever, “I doubt they remember her at this point. And if they do, it must be an extremely faint memory. There’s no need to tell them anything...it’d only hurt more.”

Hyunjin sits down, grabbing her head, “God, this is so messed up.”

“That’s not fair,” Vivi mumbles.

“Life is not fair,” Sooyoung sounds detached. Her eyes looking at nowhere in particular.

Jungeun thinks she knows what Sooyoung means by that.

“And what about us?” Asks Hyunjin, “Are we gonna forget Yeojin too?”

Silence settle into the conversation as Jinsoul considers the question.

“Well you guys could still see her, just like right now…that should stop that from happening, no?”

Hyunjin shrugs. Who is she to have an answer to that, shouldn’t Jinsoul be the one to have all answers.

“I’d like that,” Yeojin speaks for the second time since she’s arrived, her eyes look slightly teary and her nose is tinted by a pale red,“I don’t, um...really remember you guys. But I wanna be here, I should be here. It’s what feels right.”

It’s a nostalgic feeling that Yeojin didn’t even know she was missing. Finding immediate comfort in strangers; she’s never felt anything like that before.

Maybe Jungeun finds herself paying too much attention at Sooyoung once again, cause she notices the sudden shift in her expression almost immediately. Sooyoung looks worried. The girl notices Jungeun staring, and once again, returns the eye contact.

Sooyoung speaks to Jinsoul, asking about Yeojin’s situation, but she never stops looking at Jungeun. It’s as if she’s trying to tell her something. 

“What if, for some reason, both dimensions stop being connected?”

“Shut up! What the hell!” Screams Vivi at Sooyoung, “Why would you even say that…"

Sooyoung rolls her eyes, “Well it’s happened before. It just did, actually.”

Everyone looks at Jinsoul, waiting for an explanation. She doesn’t have one, “Well, all we can do is just hope that doesn't happen.”

“That sound reassuring…” Mocks Vivi.

Junguen crosses her fingers and hopes, prays, that it never happens again.

She wishes so for selfish reasons.

* * *

Jinsoul and Yeojin had to left the library fifteen minutes ago. Most of the girls had left a few minutes after them as well. Desperately needing to go home and process everything that just happened. It’s been a _lot_ , to say the least.

Right now only Yerim, Jungeun and Sooyoung are left.

There’s tension in the air. Tension that does not involve Yerim at all.

“Hey,” Says Yerim to Jungeun, “Wanna walk home together?”

Jungeun is tempted to say yes. Some company at night never hurt anyone. However, when she feels Sooyoung’s stare in her, she knows better.

She shakes her head, “You go ahead. I wouldn’t want to hold you back.”

Junguen prays that Yerim understands what she’s trying to do.

“Oh, it’s fine! I can totally wait for you.” Yerim starts.

Jungeun decides to be more bold, and as Yerim speaks, she uses her eyes to signal Sooyoung. That’s when Yerim stops speaking and her eyes widen, _‘Aaaah’_ she says as she realizes how much of an obstacle she’s being right now. She mouths a sorry to Jungeun.

“Oh, no! I just remembered something!” Yerim says with some horrible acting, and winks to Jungeun...Sooyoung probably sees it too.

“What did you remember?” Jungeun says, monotone voice, failing at acting convincing.

“I need to head home right now!!! I have a uh- thing. I have a thing,” Yerim literally smiles as she says that, almost proud of her awful lying skills, “I won’t be able to wait for you, friend!”

“Oh no!" Jungeun can’t wait for Yerim to get out of here.

“Well, bye Jungie” She gives Junguen a hug, and whispers ‘good luck’ in her ear.

She screams goodbye to Sooyoung as she exits the door.

Now it’s only Jungeun and Sooyoung, finally.

“And then there were two,” Says Sooyoung as she gets closer to Jungeun, “...I should head home too, no?”

“Uh, actually,” Jungeun takes a deep breath, “Can we talk?”

“Oh, now you wanna talk?”

“Well yeah...now that I know you weren’t just ignoring me, yeah.”

Sooyoung keeps closing the space between them and Jungeun yearns for that proximity.

“I would never do that…”

“And I was supposed to just know that? I mean, imagine how bad the entire situation looked for me.”

Sooyoung’s shoes are now touching Jungeun’s.

“Yeah. I know,” Sooyoung looks down for a while, escaping Jungeun's cautious stare. Something sweet yet bitter seeps through it, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t,” Jungeun’s voice is impossibly delicate, “It’s fine, it’s not your fault.”

Sooyoung manages to get even close, somehow, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

Jungeun shrugs, “I get why you didn’t.”

“I’ve missed you.”

Sooyoung’s words catch Jungeun off guard. They always do. Her voice is disgustingly sweet as she says that. It's a soft, yet strong whisper. Like a secret, one that Junguen wouldn’t mind keeping.

Jungeun flinches as she notices how close Sooyoung’s face is to hers. She practically feels Sooyoung's breath as the girl speaks again, “Have you missed me?”

This time her voice has more to it, still sweet. But there’s something else. Jungeun watches her lips as they talk.

Somehow this feeling takes Junguen back to that day in the forest. That trance like state she had fallen into, almost like being hypnotized by euphoria, by being closer than ever to what you want, what you need. Now it’s even closer, at reach length. It’s in Sooyoung, it’s always been Sooyoung.

“Well I was mad,” Jungeun changes the angle of her face, just to avoid herself from accidentally brushing lips with Sooyoung, “I was mad at you.”

Sooyoung suppresses a smile.

“Hm,” She starts playing with a strand of Jungeun’s hair that falls over her chest. It feels nice and comforting. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

Jungeun is too immersed in the feeling, in Sooyoung herself.

“What was the question again?”

This time, Sooyoung let’s a smirk show.

“Did you miss me, Jungeun?”

“I did,” Jungeun says, “I missed you.”

Sooyoung moves to close the distance. Junguen lets her.

They’re about to touch when a loud bang comes behind them. It startles them both, making them jolt. Sooyoung turns around towards the sound and puts a protective arm over Jungeun.

The sound had been just a book falling off the shelf.

Both girls laugh at the situation, though Jungeun can still feel her racing heart- which is caused by more than the sudden sound.

Sooyoung turns back to face Jungeun and softly caresses her cheek with a single finger, “I should actually go now.”

Jungeun nods, “Yeah. Me too.”

As they’re both about to walk through the door, they know they won’t see each other in the other side.

“Hey, Sooyoung?” Jungeun says right before exiting the library.

“Hm?”

“We can try again, right?”

Sooyoung smiles.

“We can try again.”

It sounds like a promise. 

Jungeun believes it.

* * *

Jungeun and Sooyoung are both sitting on the floor of the convenience store.

Sooyoung is snacking on some gummy bears that Jungeun would occasionally try to steal. Emphasis on try because every time her hand gets near the bag, Sooyoung slaps it and puts the gummy bears in Jungeun’s mouth herself.

Her attempts at stealing keep failing but, honestly...is she really losing?

Hanging out in the store has become a bit of a routine for the two. It’s only been a few days since they started spending hours, just sitting there, talking, not doing anything in particular. It’s only been days but for Junguen it feels as if she’s been doing it her entire life. 

For Sooyoung it feels like that too.

No one mentions it. They don’t tell each other those feelings. You can’t just tell people, ‘Hey, I know we kinda just met but it feels as if i’ve known you all my life and i’d like it if you could stay for the rest of it.’ That’s a little weird, isn’t it? It’s a little too soon for that.

A topic that comes often between the two is Yeojin. Sooyoung would tell her about how Yeojin is technically like a younger sister for her. She assures her that there’s no one better than Jinsoul to take care of her. 

It’s bittersweet.

Jungeun has come more at peace with the idea. It’s been easier to accept than what she thought it’d be. Almost like it makes more sense for Yeojin to be there, instead of here.

It _is_ a little scary, though. It makes her think, a lot; about things that she never even knew were possible to have thoughts about. It’s haunting, honestly. A universe so big, big enough for it to become unimaginable. For it to be easy to lose control, just like Yeojin did. Be at the mercy of something no one truly understands.

It makes Jungeun shudder.

Thoughts like that have been infesting her mind lately. It’s kinda hard to just move past it, honestly. It’s changed the way Jungeun interacts with the universe.

Are things in life meant to be or are they all just pure coincidence? Can coincidence turn into fate? Where is the line drawn between those two- is there even a line?

But then there are times when Jungeun looks at Sooyoung’s eyes and thinks that maybe those answers aren’t that important. Who cares if she’s not special in the grand scheme of the universe. Who cares she’s a tiny lonesome stat in the midst of an infinite universe? A millisecond of an eternity worth?

None of those things really matter when Sooyoung looks at her like that.

It’s easy to feel small in such a huge universe. But when Jungeun’s eyes fall into Sooyoung’s? She feels grander than ever.

When there’s all those things in life to worry about and yet she’s still what Sooyoung decides to put her focus on...wouldn’t that moment alone make her special? Make her unique? Make everything worth it?

Jungeun thinks it does. And she wouldn’t change it for anything.

“What are you thinking about?” The voice of Sooyoung brings Jungeun back to the real world.

It grounds her.

Jungeun blinks, “Hm?”

“You completely zoned out,” Sooyoung smiles, “Did you just go to another world?”

“Well technically...I kinda am in a different world right now.”

Sooyoung playfully rolls hers eyes, and her tone is warmer than it should be as she calls Jungeun a dumbass. 

Sooyoung suddenly looks smug and Jungeun knows she’s up to something…

She squints her eyes at the suspicious girl, “What is it?”

Sooyoung smiles and shows off those characteristic bunny teeth of hers, “Let's have a movie date!” Seemingly out of nowhere she pulls out a laptop and a pair of earphones from behind her that totally weren’t there before.

Jungeun gives her the softest smile.

That’s an offer impossible to say no to.

* * *

Sooyoung and Jungeun’s first movie date had been a complete and utter mess.

Sooyoung thought that watching an angsty movie about star crossed lovers fighting against time would be a good idea- she had been wrong. By the end of it they were both sobbing uncontrollably. It was a little embarrassing, to be honest.

On top of that they had to share earphones which not only made the movie ridiculously difficult to hear over the crunching noises of the popcorn they were eating, but it also made Sooyoung have to stop it every five minutes cause Jungeun would move too much, continuously making the earphone fall off from Sooyoung’s ear.

More than once Jungeun would scream back at her with a “Fine! Let’s just not use earphones, then!” To that, Sooyoung would immediately pout and say, “Well I didn’t say I want to stop sharing...I just said that you need to stop moving so much.”

Jungeun would just shake her head and hit play again. Secretly, though, she’d be glad that Sooyoung hadn’t accepted, because sharing them gave her the perfect excuse to brush shoulders with the older girl. During a particularly emotional scene, Jungeun even made the move of resting her head on Sooyoung’s shoulder. 

She pretended not to notice Sooyoung’s entire body tense up at the action.

It was nightmare. They both loved it.

After that rather horrible experience they decided to have a second one, naturally.

This time Jungeun gets to pick the movie. She seems to have learned absolutely nothing from last time cause she went for another emotionally charged movie: The Notebook. She chose it after Sooyoung mentioned that she’s never seen it. Jungeun dramatically gasped at that and made it her life mission to make Sooyoung watch it.

“That’s it!” Jungeun had said, clapping, “We’re watching The Notebook next!”

Sooyoung twisted her face in disgust, cliché movies such as that one have never been her style. But for some reason Jungeun seems to be obsessed with them, so what could Sooyoung do? Say no? Well….she could have, technically. But the thing is, she didn’t want to. How could she say no when Jungeun was looking all excited and adorable. She could never be that heartless.

So now, here is Jungeun, chirpily skipping to the convenience store to meet Sooyoung. She carries her laptop with a recently downloaded file of The Notebook, a fresh batch of cookies- not that she prepared them for Sooyoung specifically or anything like that, not at all, she just was in the mood to make cookies, really-  and a single pair of earphones, even though she could have easily grabbed a second one.

She gets there first, and sits on their usual spot. She’s practically bouncing with excitement and feeling a little ridiculous for it, just a little. 

Junguen is not the type of person to get too far ahead of things, but she likes where this is going. Her relationship with Sooyoung. She feels confident on it. 

It makes her happy.

* * *

Sooyoung is late.

Jungeun has a bad feeling about it. 

A feeling that is too familiar in the worst way possible. It starts when it’s been an hour and Sooyoung still hasn’t arrived. It’s the type that comes with a tummy ache, and as though your heart is beating in your ear.

Jungeun wants it gone as soon as it starts.

She knows she can just call or text her. Ask Sooyoung why she isn’t there yet. But she’s too scared to. Jungeun only gets the courage to do so when two hours have passed.

The cookies are cold by now.

She tries texting her first, she just writes a ‘hey’. Jungeun winces when all that she gets back is a red lettered ‘Not Delivered”. Maybe there’s just bad reception in this place, right? 

She leaves the store, in hopes that it’s just the signal and tries calling this time.

It doesn’t even connect.

“No,” She whispers softly. 

She calls again and gets the same result. She tries over and over again. Nothing changes.

“No, no, no, please no, not now,” A tear falls in her phone’s screen, “Sooyoung, pick up! C’mon!”

She doesn’t.

Jungeun’s mind goes back to that one thought that she had when Jinsoul first told them everything, that day in the library. The thought that she so badly tried to push aside cause she didn’t like what it suggested.

Their dimensions are like magnets, Jinsoul had said. As much as magnets attract each other, they can also cause repulsion; depending on what pole they’re meeting on.

Jungeun and Sooyoung are meeting in the wrong pole.

The more their respective dimensions are pulled into one another...the more they repel each other.

The closer they get, the farther they’ll be.

It feels like a sick joke from the universe, and no one is laughing.


	7. a year in the making

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi hello first i'd like to say sorry this update took longer than usual, this past month has been..a lot to me and only now i got the chance to work on this chapter. but yeah, as u see, it's the last one so hopefully it's a good end to the story and everyone reading it likes it! thank you so much if you got this far, i hope you've had fun. i sure did whille writing this ^_^ that's all i've got to say, enjoy~

Nothing changes. 

The way that everything stays the same is the the worst part. Sooyoung is gone and no one seems to notice it; maybe it’s because she was never truly there. Never really a part of Jungeun’s world. 

Sooyoung leaves Jungeun’s life the same way she entered it. Sudden, quick, so incredibly quiet that it’s easy to miss. You only notice it once it’s already happened.

It pierces Jungeun’s soul, but has little to no effect in everything else around her. Life goes on. Time moves as always- not slower, not faster, it just keeps moving. Days come and go, and everything else is the same. There’s nothing Jungeun can do about it. All she's left with is a feeling of absence, longing. It’s such a stupidly prepotent feeling. Constantly at the back of Jungeun’s head but always in the front. She wonders if it’ll ever leave.

There's uncertainty, too. Uncertainty of whether there’ll ever be a next time or not. Of if they already said their final goodbyes without even realizing it. Should she wait for Sooyoung? 

Jungeun can’t help but wonder about Sooyoung’s feelings as well. Is _she_ waiting? Is this affecting her as much as it is affecting Jungeun? 

Does she miss her, too? 

Hope is the worst part of it all. Jungeun can’t help but hope that this isn’t their end. It can’t be, right? It can’t be something so...anticlimactic, so dull. Their story deserves more, she thinks. An end should be clear, with no room for a next chapter. It needs to be decisive and definitive, **_she_ **needs it to be that way. She needs it to be that way so she can stop ending each day feeling unachieved because Sooyoung isn’t there. She needs it to move on, cause right now, that option feels like a betrayal. A betrayal on them. On Sooyoung. Jungeun hates everything about that thought, she hates it so much that she avoids it as much as possible. She decides to take it one day at a time and not worry about how future Jungeun will have to deal with moving on. But even then, things don’t get easier. If anything, it gets harder as more time passes. She misses Sooyoung more, and more. It’s suffocating.

“Do you think I’ll ever forget her?” Asks Jungeun one day to Haseul, seemingly out of nowhere.  They’re just laying on a couch in the middle of Haseul’s living room, both fooling around on their respective phones. 

Haseul seems to immediately know what Jungeun is talking about. She always knows everything.

She offers Jungeun a compassionate smile, “It’s only been a month. Just give it some time, Jungie.”

“No, I mean, like- literally. Do you think I’ll ever forget she once existed in my life?”

“Oh,” Haseul says quietly, silence settles as she doesn’t know what to reply.

“I don’t want to forget her,” Jungeun mumbles.

“Then you won’t.”

Jungeun doesn’t know what it is about Haseul, but she’s comforting. The tone of her voice, the way she means what she says. There’s comfort in her eyes. Even if she doesn’t say much, she always listens, and says just enough. It’s easy to believe her.

“I just wished we’d gotten some type of closure, you know,” Jungeun sounds vulnerable, like she’s telling someone a deep, well-kept secret.

As much as losing Yeojin for a second time also sucked for the rest of the group- especially Yerim and Hyunjin, at least they had the security that Yeojin was alright. That she’s safe with Jinsoul, that she and her future will be fine without them. Jungeun envies them. I mean, yeah, it sucks; and they’re missing someone as much as Jugeun is, but there’s not those thousands of what if’s circling their minds the entire day.

_What if we could have become something else? Maybe we could’ve had something special. Could  things have gone different? What if we had a future?_

Jungeun stops those thoughts before she starts feeling worse, if that’s even possible. She hears Haseul hum thoughtfully.

“What never started can never really end.”

Jungeun has to lift her head awkwardly to get a good look at her friend. She frowns, “What do you mean?”

Haseul shrugs, “I’m just saying it has yet to begin, no?”

Jungeun huffs, “I’m not so sure, Seul.”

Haseul mumbles a reply that Jungeun doesn’t bother listening to. She made herself feel like shit for bringing Sooyoung up and would rather stop talking about it now. 

She’d rather make _everything_ about this stop, actually. As much as she hates the idea of forgetting Sooyoung, she can’t help but think that maybe it would be for the best.

* * *

Sooyoung’s summer comes with Jungeun and leaves without her. It’s easy to fall back into a routine once a new semester starts. If she’s not busy with college, it’s with tutoring and on top of that, she got a new job in some cafe so life is pretty hectic at the moment. Hectic enough to leave no time to think about Jungeun.

Or at least that’s what Sooyoung had hoped for...because even when life is being overwhelmingly busy and everything seems to be moving on the fast lane, she still manages to make time for Jungeun.

If it’s not by seeing her in her dreams, it is by the image of Jungeun being the first thing in her mind when she wakes up. Every morning she checks to see if there’s a text, or a missed call from her. Every morning she’s left with a disappointment that accompanies her for the rest of the day. 

Maybe if the girl was still here things would feel easier. Days would be swifter to get through cause at the end of them, she’d get to talk with someone that puts her at ease. Someone that she knows is rooting for her. 

It’s a bittersweet thought. Sweet cause it’s Jungeun. Bitter because that’s all it’ll ever be, a thought.

Sooyoung almost feels like her life is in autopilot mode. She does most things out of habit, her every day becomes nothing but a procedure that seems to be unavoidable. It’s just hard to know so much about the universe and yet be unable to do anything with that information, you know?

Being filled with all that knowledge makes her feel empty.

There’s so many possibilities out there, so many worlds, universes, people… Jungeun. And yet, here she is, stuck in a mundane life, which feels all sort of incomplete. It’s like an important part has been forgotten, left out. All she can do is ignore it, and continue living.

She’d try to fill that space by spending time with her friends, but obligations never slow down and she barely sees them, maybe once every couple of weeks. Has life always felt this hollow?

Autumn comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Sooyoung finds comfort in the falling leaves but it’s never quite enough. 

Jiwoo stops asking her about Junguen, but Sooyoung knows she’s thinking about it. Jinsoul stops giving her pep talks about how the universe works in mysterious ways and that there’s always a reason for it, “The galaxies are smarter than what you think!” She’d say, and Sooyoung would just force a smile. She appreciated the sentiment, she did; but Jinsoul’s comforting words never really worked on her, at least not _now_.

Winter arrives and Sooyoung can never find enough warmth.

She feels the cold enter her bones one day in which Yeojin says she misses ‘them’. 

“Miss who?” Sooyoung had asked.

“Everyone stuck on the other side.”

Sooyoung had tried her best to seem unphased and nod, “Me too,” she replied, so low that Yeojin probably hadn’t even catch it.

“Me too..”

* * *

Jungeun is currently sitting on a table, surrounded by Haseul, Vivi, Hyunjin, Heejin and Yerim, as usual. The group they made had managed to become a _thing_ through time, and now they did pretty much everything together.

When she got an invitation earlier that day to have dinner out she never thought that it’d take this route. She was just expecting some well deserved resting time in the midst of studying for her finals to relax and ease her mind for a couple of hours, but now, she’d honestly prefer being hunched over some text-book than dealing with whatever mess this is about to be.

“Intervention, really?” Jungeun stares at the group dumbfoundedly, “This is so unnecessary...”

She crosses her arms defensively, as Yerim winces at the response.

“Not intervention, per se,” Haseul shakes her head, “That sounds too dramatic.”

“Yeah!” Hyunjin interferes, “We just think you need some quality time with people that care for you, cause these days you seem…um...”

“Down,” Heejin completes the sentence for her.

Everyone nods along and Jungeun feels a lump in her throat starting to form. She never thought it’d be  _that_ noticeable...Heck, she never thought this feeling would last for so long.

She’s forgotten what it was like before, to not feel as if something is constantly dragging her down.

“You can talk to us, you know,” Vivi’s voice is soft and sincere. For some reason those words trigger something in Jungeun that gives a glossy look to her eyes.

Jungeun doesn’t do that much- talk about feelings. More than often she keeps them to herself. She sure as hell has being doing so for the last few months. She’d mention some things here and there, but usually ends up dealing with things on her own. She doesn’t do it on purpose, it’s not like she tries to avoid talking about it- at least not actively. It just happens that way. Clearly, that approach hasn’t been working this time. She’s exhausted of feeling this way, but really, what else can she do? 

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” Clears out Haseul, “We’re not here to force you do anything, really. But talking about things can be helpful, you know?”

Yerim hums in agreement, “Even if we can’t- um, fix it, it could be an outlet for you to just...talk things out.”

Junguen looks down, not being able to hold anyone’s stare at the moment, but she smiles. The rush that this conversation had initially given her turns into warmth, and she takes a deep breath before speaking.

“I don’t know what to do…” She mumbles, “I really, _really_ , don’t know what to do.”

She feels a warm hand over hers, it’s Yerim’s. It surprises her how comforting it is.

“I can’t let go. And I- I don’t know if that’s me being- I don’t know, pathetic or hopeful. I still think that one of these days she’ll just show up again and we’ll just resume where we left on. It’s like I have this gut feeling that this isn’t over yet. It can’t be, we- we still have time together, I _know_ it”

Jungeun lets out a dry laugh, “That sounds so dumb out loud, maybe I really am just being pathetic.”

“Hey! No!” Heejin frowns, “Don’t say that. That’s not pathetic at all, none of it is.”

“There’s no rush, Jungeun,” Says Vivi, “If you want to wait for her, then wait for her. But, don’t let that consume you.”

Jungeun finally looks up, and meets Vivi’s eyes, “How?”

Vivi hesitates.

“Just be open to that but don’t close yourself off to everything else?”

Jungeun frowns, that makes sense...in theory. But things like that are always much harder in practice.

“Just take it with patience,” Vivi finishes off.

“I hate that there’s literally nothing to do about it,” Jungeun mumbles.

“You can always look after yourself, “ Says Hyunjin, “And that’s what you need to do now.” 

Jungeun sighs. 

Yeah. That’s all there is to do now.

* * *

It’s Jinsoul’s birthday.

Sooyoung is feeling anything but festive.

Jinsoul makes a small get together, with most of their closest friends. It takes a lot for Sooyoung to be there, and it takes everything in her not to bring the mood down and just smile her way through the entire celebration.

It shocks her, how much energy it takes, how drained she feels after. She’s never been this kind of person; not that there’s anything wrong with it, really, but she’s always been _that_ person that thrives off social interactions and attention. She feeds off from being the life of a party. But now? She can’t stop thinking about how she’d rather be home alone, having some very much needed _and_ deserved me time. She desperately needs to recharge her batteries for at _least_ a couple of weeks. She just feels completely worned out, both physically and mentally. Emotionally, too, god- emotionally more than anything.

The night drags along. Through most of it she manages to get distracted and genuinely enjoys herself, though she still needs to take unnecessarily long bathroom breaks here and there just to get a breather from time to time. 

Even when a part of her still hates being here and longs for the quietness of her bedroom, there is another, more prominent one, that is glad for this.  She’s been needing it. Still...Sooyoung is sure that after the night ends, she’ll need to not see another human for at _least_ a week, she’ll have to do some serious recharge of her social battery after all this. 

The get together ends pretty late- late enough for Sooyoung to sleep over at Jinsoul’s. Jiwoo joins them, too. They all end up piled up on Jinsoul’s bed, becoming a mesh of long legs and arms. No one really notices when exactly it is that Yeojin joins them, but suddenly she’s part of their unprompted cuddle group.

No one really talks, not for a while, at least. They all lay in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company. Sooyoung finds solace in the sound of her friends’ breathing. She does that a lot these days, constantly appreciates the little moments such as this one, where nothing’s really happening. It’s at  times like this where she gets to think about the people that she cares about the most. About Jinsoul, Yeojin, and Jiwoo. About her friends. Of how they are here with her, **_really_ **here. They are hers to have and always will be. They won’t disappear tomorrow or the day after that. She likes that.

She doesn’t like that Jungeun can’t be part of that thought.

Sooyoung growns at the thought and nuzzles herself deeper into Jinsoul’s side. As she does this, her eyes fall to a frame on Jinsoul’s bedside table. It holds pictures of the blonde girl with Yeojin- they’re photobooth pictures. On  them, each girl holds a small sign, one reads ‘family’ and the other one ‘best friends’. Sooyoung smiles at it. 

“Do you want to go back, Jinnie?”

It’s random, and Sooyoung speaks quietly, suddenly feeling self-aware of interrupting the settled silence.

“Hm?” 

“To the other side. Would you want to go back?”

“Oh,” Yeojin seems deep in thought for a while.

“...”

“...”

“I...don’t know?” Comes Yeojin’s voice again.

Sooyoung frowns at the response, just cause of how guilty Yeojin looks while saying it.

“I mean,” Yeojin says slowly, “I wouldn’t want to leave this place behind. **_This_ **is my place now, not there- ah, is that wrong to say? I just-” She looks at Jinsoul as she often does when she needs some type of validation, “I don’t know.”

Jinsoul grimaces at her sister, “Hey, it’s fine. It’s only natural you’d feel that way. You still don’t remember anything about your life in there, no?”

Yeojin looks almost worried, “No. Not really. But those girls, Yerim and Hyunjin, they feel like life-time best friends and I- I don’t-” She takes a deep breath, seemingly getting her thoughts together, “I feel guilty cause I can’t really think of them like that- not genuinely, at least. And I really wished they could be that to me, it feels as if they should be that to me. As if they should be here right now, I want them to, but they’re...they’re not.”

Sooyoung probably understands Yeojin’s words more than anyone in the room.

That feeling of what should be, but isn’t. Of what feels like the truth, but yet is not a reality.

Yeah, she understands that all too well.

“I think it’d be weird if you felt any other way, to be honest,” Says Jiwoo, “Like, best-friends? Yeah, that’s what they are to you, you just can’t really remember it and that discrepancy is messing with you.”

“That makes sense,” Mumbles Sooyoung.

“Of course it does. Jinnie, it’s like your mind and feelings can’t decide what’s the truth or like, can’t accept it.”

Jiwoo’s word leave Sooyoung thinking. It makes her wonder- what is _her_ truth? What is it that her mind and feelings are having such a hard time deciding on?

Is it that she has to let go, but refuses to? Or is the right answer to wait, even if its hard?

If Yerim and Hyunjin are meant to be Yeojin’s best friends...then what is Jungeun meant to be for her? 

She has way too many questions and zero answers.

“Ugh!” Sooyoung groans out loud, dramatically flopping her face into a pillow.

She feels a hand patting her head, it’s probably Jinsoul.

“Tsk, tsk, you too?” Yeah, it’s Jinsoul.

“You guys will be fine, I promise,” Says Jiwoo.

Sooyoung tries her best to believe her, but it’s rather hard at the moment.

* * *

It’s summer again and the past few months have been nothing but a blur for Jungeun. Being honest, she wouldn’t be surprised if time as she knows it had been affected by everything that happened. It just all felt like a constant dream. Like she’s been here, but not  quite.

There’s been entire portions over the last year that have felt like nothing but a hallucination to Jungeun. Yerim being the main character in one of them, for example. 

One day Yerim approaches Jungeun and starts talking about a confession, seemingly out of nowhere. There’s tears, and crying and Yerim asking for forgiveness. From who? Jungeun is not sure.

“I did it,” Yerim says in between sobs, “What happened to Yeojin is my fault.”

Jungeun is not shocked. All she can really do is listen and comfort her, she listens for hours; though can barely recall a single word of it now. She puts no blame on the girl, if anything she can totally understand why she did it. She would have done the same, if given the chance.

She lets Yerim get it all out.

They both move on.

She knows that hadn’t been a dream, even though it most definitely felt like one. Was that an effect of this whole multiverse thing, too?

Whatever the case is, she’s just glad summer has arrived and that she can finally catch a break from certain responsibilities.

“Please, no summer project this year!” Vivi had joked. Jungeun had laughed along and promised that it wasn’t even an option, though she couldn’t help but feel the comment sting a little bit.

Jungeun uses every second of her break. Mostly because Haseul prohibits her from spending all her days locked in her room. Sometime she’d get lucky, though, and get a couple of days in which she’d do nothing other than sleep for hours, only getting up for a much needed bathroom break here and there.

There’s not much to do in town, but it’s hard for a group of six to get bored that easily. Somehow they’d always have a packed schedule.

Jungeun is glad, she doesn’t like not having distractions.

They’re spending the afternoon in a mall one day. It’s a new one that opened a couple of days ago. It’s actually the only mall in town. It doesn’t have that many stores, Jungeun could count them with her hands, but at least it offers _something_ to do. 

After losing a game of rock-paper-scissors Jungeun gets the task of taking the food tray with everyone's meal to the table. She rolls her eyes intensively as she leaves the group to fulfil her penalty, leaving everyone behind her acting like a giggling mess.

She’s walking back to the table ridiculously slow, too scared to spill anything, and taking the shortest steps imaginable. 

A snippet of some strangers’ conversation steals her attention for a second and she barely loses balance. Whoever’s talking is outside of her peripheral vision, so all she can really do is listen. Nothing particularly interesting is being said so it’s not like she’s trying to be nosy on purpose or anything. It’s the names being mentioned that catch her attention almost immediately.

“Hyejoo, stop doing that!” A small, soft sounding voice screams.

The name sounds familiar.

They go back and forth for a while, and Jungeun can’t help but think that she’s heard one of those voices before. She just can’t remember from where, exactly.

“Chae, relax!” Says the familiar voice. And that’s when it clicks.

_It’s rain girl!_ Jungeun thinks. She’s too invested in these strangers’ conversation to notice the person currently walking backwards towards her. She only feels the impact of their two bodies crashing, and everything on the food tray spilling on top of her.

It’s a loud mess.

“Are you serious?!” Jungeun screams, the other person doesn’t even have the decency to turn around. They just stand frozen in place. “Watch where you’re going, what the hell!”

The other person finally turns around.

“Jungeun?”

Jungeun feels her breath hitch.

“Sooyoung?” She says in disbelief.

Junguen has no idea of who moves first- they probably both move at the same time, but suddenly she finds herself in Sooyoung’s embrace. She feels as if she’s melting into the older girl. Jungeun feels disoriented and overwhelment in the best way possible. She has no idea of what’s happening but now it’s not the time to question it.

Sooyoung’s grasp is firm, suffocating. _Real_. Jungeun wouldn’t want it any other way. The hug is a desperate one, but how couldn’t it be when it’s been a year in the making.

“You’re here,” Sooyoung speaks into Jungeun's ear, refusing to let go of her body. Her words are slow, almost as if she can’t quite comprehend the weight of what she’s saying.

Sooyoung’s imagined this moment so many times. In so many different ways, but nothing comes close to this. To the real thing. For a minute she fears that this is nothing but a dream. But when she feels Jungeun squeezing back, tighter than ever, she knows it’s real. 

The hug doesn’t stop. None of them know how much time they’ve spent like that, they just know it doesn’t feel like enough. “I’ve missed you so much,” Jungeun murmurs into Sooyoung’s neck. Her breath is warm, it’s what Sooyoung’s been needing.

Sooyoung pulls back a little, just enough to be able to look at Jungeun face to face but keep their arms in each other’s bodies.

One of her hands goes to Jungeun’s face, just like the first time they reunited- back then it had only been a few weeks apart, though. “I’ve missed you too,” With a gentle touch, she caresses Jungeun’s cheek, as if making sure that she’s really there, “So much.”

She’s home. Jungeun feels home.

* * *

They move apart from each other just so they can go sit in a table together. Only the two of them, their friends can deal well on their own…

Jungeun only has to look into Sooyoung’s eyes for a second to collect all her memories with the girl. There’s no way she could have ever forgotten about those, even if she tried.

“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” Sooyoung can’t help but talk with a smile.

Jungeun takes Sooyoung’s hands in hers, they rest them over the table and it doesn’t take long for Sooyoung’s thumb to start rubbing circles on Jungeun’s hand.

“I had my doubts, too,” Jungeun says quietly, almost ashamed at the idea of giving up.

“I’m glad we were wrong.”

Jungeun wanta to be happy, she does. And she _is_ , it’s just that she can’t help but think about the fragility of their reunion. Who knows if they’ll be separated again, who knows how much time they’ll have together this time around.

It feels as if they’re running against the clock. Challenging the finiteness of it all.

“Do you think-” Jungeun stops when she feels her voice wobble. She pauses, and takes a deep breath, “Do you think this new mall works as a new portal between our dimensions, or something like that?”

Sooyoung tilts her head, frowning, “New mall?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jungeun says hesitantly, “This place? It opened like...two days ago.”

Sooyoung pauses for a moment, clearly preoccupied with something “This place’s been here for years.”

Jungeun’s eyes narrows, “I don’t think so.”

“Literally, yes.”

Jungeun shrugs, not understanding why that could be a big deal, “Not to me, it's whatever.”

“Wait,” Sooyoung speaks again but doesn’t continue the sentence. She pauses for a bit, considering to more detail whatever thought it is that she’s having right now, “Could it be- No…there’s no way, right?” 

She looks at Jungeun expectantly, as if actually waiting for an answer to that incomprehensible mess she just spluttered.

“Huh?”

Sooyoung stands up abruptly, making her chair screech painfully against the floor, “Come here,” She grabs Jungeun’s hand and starts walking away from their table, dragging Jungeun along, “I wanna try something.”

* * *

Jungeun and Sooyoung are standing outside of the mall. 

Neither of them are sure of what this means or of how they should react to it.

Sooyoung has the biggest smile on her face, making it obvious what she’s thinking.

Jungeun, however, is having a harder time processing everything, “Wait,” She says, “What is happening right now? Does this- does this mean what I think it does?”

Sooyoung walks towards her, once again claiming a spot between Jungeun’s arm, “I think it does.”

“Sooyoung...” She says quietly, so delicate that it’s almost impossible to hear, she’s scared of speaking  too loud and ruining the moment. She has nothing to say, no thoughts formulated at all, at least not in a way they’re able to be put into words.

Sooyoung is looking at her attentively, as infatuated as ever. As if Jungeun is the only thing in her world. Right now she is.

Their faces are a breath away now. Feeling closer than ever.

“You’re **_here_ **,” Sooyoung’s words are so close to Jungeun’s mouth that they practically become hers.

“I am,” Jungeun whispers back, “I’m really here, now.” 

What’s been said feels like a promise, a promise that they’ll keep. 

They let their words linger between the two for just a moment, quietly taking in each other’s presence.

Jungeun knows that now’s the moment, it almost feels like an urge.

She follows her body and it leads her to Sooyoung. They kiss and their respective worlds seem to fall apart at their touch. Everything in them becoming one, being as close as physically possible, and even more.

This is it, this is the feeling that they’ve been missing their entire lives. It’s the feeling of entire galaxies bending for them, and only them; millions of moments and lifetimes leading up to this one instant in space and time. They are at the center of the universe and it is now kneeling for them.

They’re finally meeting at the right pole.

* * *

It’s impossible to exactly pinpoint what originally belonged in Jungeun's world, and what belonged to Sooyoung’s. It’s like a venn diagram that, without anyone realizing, became a single circle. 

Some things stay the same, while others change without them even realizing it. All the changes feel natural, like everything finally makes sense. Most things feel as if they should’ve been that way the entire time. 

For instance, their town _finally_ has a name, and now Junguen can’t even comprehend how she lived in a nameless town for two decades and never questioned it...Not even once.

The way things used to be get forgotten almost immediately. To anyone other than those who were already self-aware of the nature of the universe, the changes seem to go by completely unnoticed.

Said changes also reach Yeojin. Her memory seems to go through a similar phenomenon. Memories from her life in both dimensions merge and it sounds too good to be true and everyone is suspicious for a while because how is that even possible?! But it is. It’s true and as real as anything has ever been. 

The night of her disappearance doesn’t come back to her, though. It was never Yeojin’s to begin with. Something had taken over her at the time- someone. Yerim and Jinsoul are the one who change that and tell Yeojin what happened. It’s a lot to listen and even more to take in, but Yeojin just smiles and hugs them. She tells them that it’s fine. Everything is okay now.

Yeojin is able to go back home, her parents just accept the fact that she’s here again and seem to forget that she ever  wasn’t.

Yeojin cries when she sees them, and can’t even begin to explain them why.

They cry too, maybe there’s still some traces of what happened hidden somewhere deep in their unconscious. 

As the girls see the world around them change, they all try to understand it. No one can. 

They’ve formed a ridiculously big group of people when the different friend groups of each dimension joined. They’re twelve now….It’s a number that feels complete, somehow. Accidentally meant to be. Something that can only be result of some type of impossible miracle that turns two different moons into one.

It makes it all a tad more embarrassing as well, cause now they’ve got twelve brains trying to come up with an explanation, and yet still managing to tremendously fail at  it.

“It’s ridiculous!” Whines Jinsoul, “Nothing about this makes sense, nothing!”

Sooyoung shrugs, “The universe works in mysterious ways. Remember?”

Jinsoul shoots her a death glare. Even though the girl is partially mocking her, there is still some sense to her words.

Not everything has to always have an answer.

Jiwoo interferes the conversation, “Maybe there was some type of stupidly strong force pulling our worlds together.”

As if on cue, every head in the room turns towards Sooyoung and Jungeun, who are currently sharing a chair, even though there’s plenty of free spots in Yerim’s living room.

Needless to say, Jungeun’s face starts burning up to the point that it reaches her ears. Sooyoung finds it disgustingly cute.

“Okay, now you’re just being ridiculous,” Says Sooyoung, sounding totally unaffected, unlike the blushing mess that sits next to her.

Jiwoo hums pettily, “I could still be right, just saying. I mean, look at you two.” She puts her hands up dramatically, and talks as if she’s pitching some movie concept, “Intergalactic soulmates, defying all laws and odds just to be together. It’s got a great ring to it.”

Jungeun screams at her to shut up in a painfully high pitched tone.

Jungeun and Jiwoo had clicked as soon as they met. Junguen recognized her instantly; the girl from her dreams. Jiwoo tells her she seems familiar, too.

Sometimes Jungeun gets confused, and talks to Jiwoo about something that happened in one of her dreams, mistaking it with a real memory. The weirdest part is that every time, Jiwoo knows exactly what she’s talking about.

The conversation moves on, but Sooyoung’s not really paying attention to it anymore. She only pays attention to Junguen, waiting patiently for her face to go back to a normal color.

When it finally does, Sooyoung angles her body so she can whisper directly into Jungeun’s ear, ready to mess with her again. “Maybe they’re right, you know,” She starts.

“Hm?”

Sooyoung backs away just for a second so she can see the confused expression that takes over Jungeun’s face, she smiles at it.

“I’m saying that I’d follow you anywhere. Even if that means crossing dimensions for you.” Her tone makes an incredibly public moment feel private. Jungeun forgets there’s ten other people with them.

“Oh my God!” She nothing but screeches, “Shut up, literally shut up!”

Sooyoung laughs, getting exactly the reaction she was hoping for. She wonders if Jungeun will ever get used to her incredibly cheesy lines, or if she’ll ever get tired of pretending that she hates them.

She tunes back into the conversation, but can’t catch anything more than a few sentences before she feels her side getting softly poked.

“Hey,” She hears Jungeun say quietly.  She turns her face to find the girl staring at her with a shy look in her face. Just like Sooyoung did, she moves to whisper something in Sooyoung’s ear.

“I'd follow you anywhere, too.”

Sooyoung smiles, it’s a soft one but it somehow manages to reach her eyes, “I know you would.”

Jungeun moves her face closer and kisses Sooyoung, it’s barely anything more than a peck, but it’s sweet and so incredibly mundane that she can’t help but feel that it is special in its own way. 

Jungeun smiles, so does Sooyoung. Jungeun sees that smile and knows that Sooyoung is feeling it, too. 

It’s not the first time she’s seen that smile; she’s seen it more times than she can even count or remember. She knows it better than anything; it’s practically engraved on not her mind, but her soul. The mind shifts, and changes. The mind forgets. The soul doesn’t, and Jungeun could never forget Sooyoung. No matter the when or how, or even the where. No matter the name she goes after or skin she wears. Jungeun will always know it’s her. Her Sooyoung.

Jungeun sees that smile and knows that Sooyoung is feeling it, too. 

The feeling of falling in love.

 


End file.
